National Development Banks and Cities: a strategic partnership to scale up financing for the local climate transition

Financing the climate transition in cities, which generate around 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions, is key to achieve the Goals of the Paris Agenda. However, cities are faced with a systemic finance gap.

National development banks (NDBs) can play a key role to bridge this gap. They are ideally placed to channel domestic and international funding to the local level, acting as a last mile bank. They can de-risk or cover upfront costs, can provide local currency financing instruments, and can leverage locally adapted financial mechanisms.

To do so, they must develop dedicated urban climate strategies and instruments and overcome barriers, among which the lack of capacity of cities to structure bankable projects pipelines, as well as unappropriated institutional frameworks which limit the cities financial autonomy.

This session will explore how NDBs can respond to cities expectations in deploying technical and financial support for urban climate project preparation and investment.