Financing Green and Resilient Cities to tackle Climate Change

This session organized by the World Bank and supported by the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCOM) will discuss the key challenges and opportunities to scaling up financing to mitigate and adapt to climate change in cities. The session will be moderated by the World Bank and will convene mayors and former mayors to share their experiences in planning for and accessing green and climate finance for their cities. Cities are the biggest contributors to climate change and will be key to addressing global warming. Limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius will require rapid and far-reaching transitions in uses of energy, land, urban infrastructure, and services (including transport, buildings, and waste management), and industrial systems in cities. At the same time, climate change impacts threaten to increase vulnerabilities, destroy economic gains, and hinder social and economic development. The urban poor will bear the brunt of these impacts since they are more exposed to hazards. With increasingly concentrated people and assets in cities, a complex range of growing shocks and stress imposes tremendous costs on the globe. Cities will experience these impacts most acutely. Global average annual losses from weather-related and other disasters in cities were estimated at about US$314 billion in 2015 and are expected to increase to US$415 billion by 2030, which significantly drain public investment especially in poorer countries. Without inclusive, green, and climate-informed urban development, climate change can push an additional 100 million urban residents fall back into poverty by 2030. World Bank is supporting cities through its City Climate Finance GAP Fund (Gap Fund) and the City Resilience Program (CRP) to identify, prepare and deliver climate mitigation and adaptation investments. Assistance available ranges from developing climate action plans to climate risk mapping, capital planning and preparation of specific investments delivered with a focus on maximizing the sources of finance available.