Bridging the Climate Finance Gap: How CDP and GCoM are Connecting Cities to the Financing and Funding They Need to Achieve Local Climate Action
From installing solar microgrids to restoring mangroves, cities worldwide are identifying the projects they need to combat climate change. However, there remains a critical barrier: access to the financial and technical resources necessary to bring these initiatives to life.
Why do cities need support to develop their climate-related projects?
According to the State of Cities Climate Finance Report 2024, climate finance flows to cities more than doubled between 2017 and 2022. However, demand is projected to rise fivefold by 2050. Meanwhile, many cities lack the capacity, technical knowledge, and financial resources to develop climate-related projects.
Since 2014, the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCoM) has partnered with CDP to track action through CDP-ICLEI Track, CDP’s disclosure platform for cities. In 2024, close to 1,000 local governments from over 80 countries disclosed their climate and resiliency actions, greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation targets through the CDP-ICLEI Track. CDP’s latest Global Snapshot, produced in partnership with GCoM, highlighted over 2,500 projects in 611 cities collectively seeking more than US$86 billion in public and private funding. Among these, more than 500 projects in emerging and developing countries remain in the early stages of project development.
While these projects are vital to improving community resilience and reducing global emissions, cities face major logistical and financial hurdles to their development and implementation.
To ensure that capital reaches the most vulnerable communities, technical assistance is critical in supporting cities to design ambitious projects that are both attractive to funders and can realistically be implemented.
How do CDP and GCOM support cities’ access to project preparation support?
Given the significant financing and capacity barriers that many cities experience, GCoM established a partnership with the City Climate Finance Gap Fund (Gap Fund), a multi-donor fund implemented by the World Bank and the European Investment Bank to bridge the urban financing gap and achieve low carbon, climate-resilient urbanization pathways.
Technical assistance providers, like the Gap Fund, are often looking to increase their pool of applicants, but eligible governments may not be aware of the opportunities available to them. To date, the Gap Fund has delivered early-stage project preparation support to more than 201 cities from 58 countries. In support of the GCoM-Gap Fund Partnership, CDP and GCoM work together to leverage data reported through CDP-ICLEI Track and identify projects requiring technical assistance. In 2024, CDP identified more than 300 cities from over 40 Gap Fund eligible countries disclosing through CDP-ICLEI Track. Because of its disclosure platform and engagement with local governments, CDP is uniquely positioned to facilitate these connections and close the information gaps between local-governments and technical assistance providers.
Between 2023 and 2024, CDP and the GCoM-Gap Fund Partnership jointly hosted eight workshops, from Latin America to Africa, engaging more than 110 cities and providing targeted support to more than 70 municipalities. The workshops showcased the type of support provided by the Gap Fund, clarified eligibility criteria, and trained cities on how to turn their project ideas into applications for the fund.
Following these workshops, 10 cities from Brazil, Georgia, Indonesia, Jordan, the Philippines, and Turkiye received direct support from GCoM to help strengthen their Expressions of Interest to the Gap Fund. As a result, these cities not only have more competitive and robust applications, but they also have stronger climate-related projects, aligned with Climate Action Plans (CAP) and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
How can cities get involved in the CDP-GCOM partnership on the Gap Fund?
One way for cities to get involved is to report their project ideas during their annual disclosure to CDP-ICLEI Track. Cities share their climate risks, plans, actions, and projects in a format that is aligned with international best practices. CDP analyzes cities’ disclosure, and showcasing the data and making it accessible to investors, technical assistance providers, and the public.
CDP also works directly with the GCoM-Gap Fund Partnership to identify cities that might be strong candidates for the Gap Fund support. The GCoM-Gap Fund Partnership also works with cities directly to develop ideas for Gap Fund applications. Cities in developing and emerging markets are strongly encouraged to continue disclosing climate projects to CDP and to update previously disclosed projects where appropriate.
To learn more about CDP’s climate finance work and how we work with technical assistance providers, please reach out to us at climateprojects@cdp.net. To learn more about the support GCOM is providing in raising awareness about the Gap Fund, contact info@gcomprojectsupport.org or visit the GCOM website.