Nov 11, 2021
Inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable – the Climate Investment Funds plan to unlock the power of cities in the fight against climate change
Did you know that the world’s cities, as vast and populous as some are, only occupy 3% of the Earth’s land surface? A small geographical footprint in contrast to its carbon counterpart; cities account for up to 80% of global energy consumption and 70% of greenhouse gas emissions.
Their contribution to our climate crisis hardly needs pointing out. However, the finger of blame shouldn’t overlook this – cities are also victims of climate change.
Just ask the citizens of Beira.
Cyclone Idai, one of the worst on record, struck Mozambique’s fourth largest city in 2019 with devastating effect. At least 602 people were killed. Beira is not alone. Extreme weather events unleashing havoc in our cities are an ever-increasing feature of our news cycles.
To avert future catastrophes, we must deliver on the promise of the United Nations Sustainable-Development-Goals number 11; to make cities safe, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable. There are many in the developing economies who urgently need our help to attain such quality of life. It’s clear, a radical reimagining is required…
Our cities need to get Climate-Smart.
What’s a Climate-Smart city?
Such a place is compact, connected, and coordinated. It’s greener, transit orientated, resilient to climate risks, stimulates socially inclusive economic growth and helps countries achieve their nationally determined contributions (NDCs).
What are the barriers?
Cities face many investments focused barriers such as creditworthiness and the lack of a viable project pipeline. The limited governance, technical, and financial capacities of municipal governments also pose an obstacle to attracting public and private finance – a critical requirement for unlocking potential. According to the International Finance Corporation, cities in emerging markets could attract +$29trillion in climate-related investments by 2030.
What are the Climate Investment Funds doing?
The CIF will support transformative climate-smart urban development through a new Smart Cities Program; deploying concessional finance and working with cities to accelerate ambitious policy and investment actions in energy, transport, buildings, water, and waste systems.
Of particular interest are the new and rapidly urbanizing areas in developing countries, where urban form and infrastructure are a work in progress. Unhindered by the past, these areas hold the greatest potential to pursue climate smart objectives.
Somewhere between 15-20 cities will be selected, with support for each city ranging from $30m to $100m - depending on population size and the beneficiary’s priority investment requirements. Once the program is launched, significant impacts are expected: GHG emissions reductions are projected to be about 4million tCO2e annually, while improved economic, social, and environmental conditions are anticipated to attract private finance at many multiples of the CIF’s proposed $500million initial investment.
The program is designed to help places where the transformational impacts of climate-smart urbanization will be most impactful; to build on previous work such as in Bangladesh, where CIF know-how is supporting their government to improve climate resilience in vulnerable coastal settlements. Or in Pavlodar (Kazakhstan), where temperatures can reach 47degrees below zero, upgrades to heating networks have reduced heat losses and substantially lowered GHG emissions.
It’s in ways like this that the CIF hopes to harness the power of cities to combat climate change.
