Green City Finance Directory Launched

Penn IUR’s City Climate Infrastructure Financing Initiative (C2IFI) partnered with the Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance (CCFLA) to launch the Green City Finance Directory, a resource for cities in their efforts to scale up their development of green and resilient infrastructure. C2IFI is the latest Penn IUR activity to help cities become more sustainable and climate-resilient.

The Green City Finance Directory, currently in beta launch, helps subnational governments and stakeholders identify early-stage financial and technical assistance for developing green and resilient infrastructure, such as green forms of transportation, zero- or low-carbon buildings and clean energy systems. With assistance, these projects are then well-positioned to tap into global financing channels dedicated to helping countries reduce their CO2 emissions and reaching the goals of the Paris Agreement.

The need for such investments is critical. Approximately 70 percent of global CO2 emissions originates in cities, a figure that is anticipated to increase as the world’s population grows more urban. Although cities are a major cause of emissions, they are also the pathway towards better solutions, as better planning and targeted investment in cities can result in enormous reductions in the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. According to the World Economic Forum, traditional emissions-intensive infrastructure must change and the financial investments of about $5 trillion a year is needed to address existing and new infrastructure requirements, globally.

Increasing investments in greening the urban infrastructure sectors—water, sewer, power, and transportation—is key to reducing climate impacts on the most vulnerable populations. Cities, particularly fast-growing ones in African and Asia, house hundreds of millions of people without basic services and millions more are struggling with poor quality infrastructure. Cities are frequently located on or near water, which puts them at risk from rising seas and more frequent and powerful storms, flooding neighborhoods and overloading sewer systems. Conversely, over 1 billion people still lack basic access to drinking water and many cities are in danger of running out of fresh water as rain patterns shift and droughts increase in strength and duration.

Catalyzing investment in good planning and low-carbon infrastructure systems than will reduce CO2 emissions and mitigate climate change is necessary to help growing cities provide a sustainable, equitable quality of life for their citizens.