On this page
- What is CDP-ICLEI disclosure?
- City project disclosures (2020 to 2024)
- - Insights from EMDEs
- Global pipeline 2025 snapshot
- - Recurring patterns
- - Spotlight on identified sources of financing
- - Project development and financing progress
- - Spotlight on new project opportunities in 2025
- Strengthening multilevel collaboration
- Calls to action
- Footnotes
Moving Past Pledges Towards Implementation: How Financing Climate Projects in Cities is Key to Achieving Global Climate Goals
Developed in partnership with the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCoM), this global snapshot draws on CDP-ICLEI public data from over 1,100 disclosing cities, representing 20% of the world’s urban population. For the first time, this snapshot highlights city climate project disclosure trends from 2020 to 2024 as well as emerging insights from the 2025 reporting cycle.
The findings underscore the importance of year-on-year, comparable reporting for tracking progress and empowering cities to deliver on their climate ambition.
Since 2020 until October 1, 2025:
cities across 102 countries disclosed climate projects through CDP-ICLEI Track
total project disclosures, representing 5,600+ unique climate projects
in value for these climate projects, presenting US$166 billion in investment opportunities
Ten years since the Paris Agreement, cities have proven that they are at the forefront of climate solutions.
From Bristol’s City Leap project – which will deliver £500 million in low carbon energy infrastructure by 2030 – to Freetown’s Treetown initiative – which has already planted and tracked 1.2 million trees – local governments are delivering tangible results to reduce emissions and protect their residents, driving progress from the ground up.
Yet despite clear city leadership and ambition, current urban climate finance flows remain far below the US$4.5 trillion needed annually for mitigation and adaptation[1]. To close this gap, mayors and urban leaders have called on national governments and development finance institutions (DFIs) to increase public investment for urban climate finance to a minimum of US$800 billion annually by 2030. This funding – which would cover approximately 20% of total annual urban climate finance needs – is critical to crowd in additional private sector investment and scale city climate projects around the world.
More fundamentally, the next decade must fully empower cities to act. As emphasized in the 2025 Urban 20 (U20) Communiqué, this means integrating them into national planning processes and global finance systems, while strengthening multilevel collaboration – both vertically between levels of government as well as horizontally across multiple cities or between government ministries and departments – through initiatives such as the Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships (CHAMP) for climate action.
Disclosure is central to this transformation. By making cities’ climate project needs and opportunities visible and actionable, disclosure helps identify pathways for scaling up investment flows at the local level, while providing policymakers with clear wins on implementing national and global goals set out under the Paris Agreement.
What is CDP-ICLEI disclosure?
Each year, thousands of local governments are invited to disclose through CDP-ICLEI Track, a comprehensive environmental questionnaire powered by CDP, the world’s only independent disclosure system for companies, cities, states and regions.
By reporting, local governments can:
Measure and manage their environmental actions related to climate, water, deforestation and nature;
Report climate-related projects in need of financing or funding; and
Provide details on the project’s sector, stage of development, financing status, total estimated cost and investment needed.
Year on year, this standardized dataset of city climate projects helps close a critical information gap on cities’ financing needs and investment opportunities. It enables progress to be tracked over time, and supports stakeholders in making informed decisions on how best to direct finance and technical assistance to scale up urban climate action.
Search and view disclosure data from local governments within our Open Data Portal, or disclose through CDP.
What the last five years of city project disclosures reveal (2020 to 2024)
Cities around the world have been moving beyond pledges to concrete project opportunities, steadily expanding their pipelines, improving their data and identifying a rapidly growing need for finance.
The growing momentum:
The growing focus on adaptation is particularly evident in the significant increase of green infrastructure projects – those in the NBSs, biodiversity & urban green spaces sector category – which more than quadrupled from 79 projects in 2020, to 377 in 2024.
Projects remain concentrated in a few sectors and regions:
Insights from Emerging Markets and Developing Economies (EMDEs)
Between 2020 and 2024, the 1,066 cities that participated in project disclosure made 9,586 entries, totalling 4,979 unique projects worth US$266 billion and presenting US$130 billion in investment opportunities[5].
If fully funded, these projects could deliver massive payoffs that reach far beyond climate goals – from tens of thousands of new jobs and fairer pathways to prosperity to healthier, more liveable communities through improved air quality, energy cost-savings and equitable access to public transport systems[6].
The analysis of this dataset of unique projects reveals a stark divide for cities in emerging markets and developing economies. These cities continue to face significant barriers to finance: from poor creditworthiness and underdeveloped capital markets, to weak institutional frameworks and limited capacity to structure viable projects that can generate long-term returns.
Global pipeline 2025 snapshot
Emerging insights from CDP's 2025 data point to a continued momentum in city climate project disclosure, with cities worldwide reporting new investment opportunities.
As of October 1 2025, 507 cities across 62 countries have already disclosed a total of 2,164 projects through CDP-ICLEI Track, representing US$173 billion in total value and US$105 billion in financing needs[9].
What’s new in 2025?
The total demand for finance has already increased by 22%, compared to 2024. This growth, however, is currently driven by a few, very large-scale projects in the UK and the US, which together account for 14% of total reported investment needs (US$14.6 billion).
For the first time in 2024, cities were able to indicate whether their projects were linked to broader climate actions reported previously in the CDP cities questionnaire. So far for 2025, 288 cities spanning all regions have made such connections, linking 1,082 projects – this is up from 958 in 2024, demonstrating a continued improvement in ensuring project alignment with wider climate actions and plans.
Recurring patterns
Spotlight on identified sources of financing
Cities from across the globe continue to rely heavily on domestic public financing for their climate projects.
Of the 1,528 projects that specified a financing model, 59% reported seeking or securing financing from municipal or national government sources. Only a small share (7%) – principally mitigation projects – are pursuing strictly private sources such as commercial banks and institutional investors. Meanwhile, over a quarter (27%) are considering blended approaches that combine public and private finance[10].
The current availability of public finance alone cannot effectively tackle the climate crisis in cities. The data confirms the need to scale up both public finance and innovative financing approaches and instruments that can incentivize diversified sources of finance at scale. CDP data shows that cities – particularly in developed economies – are actively exploring innovative financial instruments to attract complementary sources of investment. These include blended finance structures, green bonds, carbon credits and offsets, grants and financial incentives, zero or low-interest loans, and cooperative financing models.
While the project examples below illustrate some of these strategies, their success ultimately depends on strengthening public financing options and enhancing governments’ access to affordable capital.
Project development and financing: progress spotlight
DE cities continue to outpace EDME cities in securing financing for their climate projects.
Of the 1,554 projects that have been disclosed in previous years – mainly in 2024 – a total of 98 have demonstrated measurable progress:
50% have advanced in project development;
30% have made progress on financing status; and
20% have shown improvement in both areas.
Consistent with trends observed from 2020 to 2024, overall progress remains concentrated in DE cities (71%) and in mitigation sectors (66%). Financing breakthroughs are predominantly observed for DE projects (72%), with EMDE projects mainly showing progress on project development.
Spotlight on new project opportunities in 2025
The 2025 pipeline so far includes 610 new projects seeking a combined US$7.5 billion in investment – equivalent to 28% of all projects reported and 7% of total reported investment needs.
The largest share of these new projects come from the United States (19%), the United Kingdom (12%), and Brazil (12%). These new opportunities span all sectors but are concentrated in buildings & energy efficiency (20%), nature-based solutions, biodiversity & urban green spaces (19%), and transport (14%).
Strengthening multilevel collaboration: spotlight on CHAMP-endorser countries
Cities in CHAMP-endorser countries are leading the global pipeline, underscoring the unprecedented opportunity to strengthen multilevel climate action.
Since its launch at COP28 in December 2023, 77 countries have joined the Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships (CHAMP) for Climate Action. CHAMP is a commitment from national governments to better integrate cities and subnational governments into the planning, financing, implementation, and monitoring of climate strategies – including the third generation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) due before COP30.
A central objective for CHAMP endorsers is to embed subnational financing needs into national climate investment priorities, as well as to support cities and regions in securing the resources necessary to begin or scale up implementation.
Since its inception, the CHAMP coalition has been supported by a wide range of organizations including the Global Covenant of Mayors for Energy and Climate (GCoM), C40 Cities and CDP[11].
GCoM is committed to supporting national governments to deliver their pledge by providing guidance, resources and support on multilevel governance as well as provide critical evidence and data on the potential contributions of cities.
As a platform for standardized, comparable and science-based localized data, CDP plays a central role in informing and connecting the right stakeholders for aligned, multilevel climate action. The local and subnational data reported through CDP-ICLEI Track can support national governments to better understand local needs and priorities, align their (NDC investment strategies, and inform their efforts in supporting and scaling city climate action.
In 2025, 400 cities from 37 CHAMP-endorser countries reported a total of 1,801 projects. These projects represent more than 80% of all projects and total investment needs (~US$92 billion). Of these, 92% are seeking financing, and 42% are in the early stages of development, underscoring the importance of enhanced national-local collaboration to accelerate implementation.
Explore CHAMP case studies based on 2024 city disclosure data, below:
Asia Pacific: South Korea, Australia, Philippines
Latin America: Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia
West Africa: Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria
Calls to action
From setting science-based targets to advancing thousands of tangible adaptation and mitigation projects, cities disclosing to CDP-ICLEI Track demonstrate that they are stepping up to the climate emergency.
However, severe barriers to finance persist, especially in EMDEs where limited project preparation and borrowing capacity, policy and regulatory hurdles, and perceived financial risks continue to hinder access to capital.
Amidst rapid urban growth and escalating climate pressures, scaling urban climate investment flows is urgent as well as financially smart. Investing in low-carbon resilient urban development not only reduces risks and long-term costs; but also strengthens local economies and fosters social inclusion and resilience, opening fairer pathways to prosperity.
Multilevel governance initiatives such as CHAMP mark important progress, giving subnational governments a stronger voice in shaping national and global climate policies, including those related to climate finance.
To build on this momentum, robust, accurate and timely disclosure of climate projects is essential, alongside other metrics. Disclosure bolsters cities’ ambition, sheds light on replicable solutions, and pinpoints priority areas for investment and technical assistance.
To unlock the full climate potential of cities, CDP, GCoM, C40 Cities and other partners are calling for the following actions:
This data was collected in partnership by CDP and ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability.
Footnotes
Cities’ financing needs for adaptation are harder to quantify due to the limited data availability, especially from the private sector. Recent CCFLA’s estimates of US$147 billion per year until 2030 only cover cities in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs).
This sectoral pattern aligns with findings from the CCFLA’s 2024 State of Cities Climate Finance report, which shows that cities’ global investment needs are largely driven by the transport, energy and building sectors, altogether requiring US$3.9 trillion annually by 2030.
In this analysis, developed economies (DEs) refer to the economically developed countries in the European Union, the UK, North America, as well as Japan, the Republic of Korea, Israel, Australia and New Zealand. Emerging markets and developing economies refer to all countries in Africa, developing Europe, Eurasia, Latin America, the Middle East and the Asia Pacific (including China).
Although early-stage projects consistently make up about half of all reported projects, their share has declined slightly from 56% in 2020 to 48-47% in the following years.
Unique projects include those disclosed only once during the period (2,458 in total) and those reported multiple times, which are recorded here by their most recent disclosure (2,521 in total).
Increasing evidence shows that green infrastructure investments typically generate higher returns than conventional infrastructure. For instance, renewable energy creates up to 1.5 times more jobs and economic activity than fossil fuels, while sustainable land use generates nearly US$7 in benefits for every US$1 invested (Batini et al. 2022; Damania et al. 2025, page 219).
This figure is a significant underestimate, as most repeat entries have not been updated, and single project entries (2,458 projects in total) are difficult to track beyond the reporting year.
At the same time, this self-reported demand for finance by EMDE cities represents only a fraction of actual needs. A recent analysis from the World Bank estimates that resilient and low-carbon urban development in low- and middle-income countries (L&MICS) alone will require between US$256 and US$821 billion annually in capital investments up to 2050 (0.8 to 2.6% of GDP), with an additional US$525 to US$548 billion per year to cover operation and maintenance costs (1.7 to 1.8% of GDP).
As of October 1 2025, these figures reflect CDP-ICLEI Track responses submitted approximately six weeks prior to the official close of the 2025 disclosure cycle on November 19, 2025. They provide early insights of city climate projects ahead of the COP30 Local Leaders Forum (November 3 to 5, 2025) and the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30, on November 6 to 21, 2025). Final results are expected to be higher, with the complete dataset for 2025 due to be published in due course.
An additional 7% of projects with an identified financing model rely on unspecified sources of financing categorized as ‘Other’.
The coalition of CHAMP endorsers is supported by a range of partnering organizations, including: America Is All In; C40 Cities; Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance (CCFLA); ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability; NDC Partnership; United Cities of Local Governments (UCLG); University of Maryland; Under2 Coalition; United Nations Development Program (UNDP); United Nations Environment Program (UNEP); United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)/Climate Champions; UN-Habitat; and WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities.