Overview

The virtual dialogue event “Unturning the stones – Exploring Climate Finance for Asian Cities” was held on the Connective Cities platform from the 28th to the 30th of September 2021. It was jointly hosted by Connective Cities and TURBOCLIC (Transformation – Urban Opportunities – Climate Change), an initiative from GIZ’s sector networks TUEWAS (Transport Environment Energy and Water in Asia) and SNGA (Governance Asia).

The active participants consisted of 25 urban practitioners and experts from 6 countries (Nepal, Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Philippines and Germany) working in the sectors financing, public works / infrastructure, greening and planning departments. They were united by the fact that all of them are working at the forefront of climate change mitigation and adaptation measures in their cities. In order to implement green and sustainable solutions that leapfrog current unsustainable patterns, it is essential to develop innovative and efficient financing approaches to build climate resilient and low-carbon cities.

Keynotes

Kristiina Yang and Laura Jungman from Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance (CCFLA) provided an overview of urban climate finance and set out the key findings from the State of Cities Climate Finance Report

The financial assessment presented during the insight presentation by Ravikumar Kamuthu was undertaken as a part of the Climate Smart Cities project in Coimbatore.

Vanessa Bauer, project manager at the City Climate Gap Fund, Nils Huhn, program manager presented at FELICITY (Financing Energy and Low-Carbon Investment), Neil Chadder, program manager at CDIA (Cities Development Initiative for Asia) and Ingrid Simon, program director at the C40 / Cities Finance Facility, also presented their approach and activities, accompanied by a panel discussion on challenges, lessons learnt and recommendations for cities.

Keynotes:

An Overview of the State of Cities Climate Finance
Kristiina Yang und Laura Jungma

Financial Assessmanent of CCMC Budget in Line with CSAF
Ravikumar Kamuthu

Cities Development Intitiative for Asia - CDIA
Neil Chadder

C40 Citites Finance Facility
Ingrid Simon

FELICITY - Financing Energy for Low-carbon Investment – Cities Advisory Facility
Nils Huhn

The City Climate Finance Gap
Vanessa Bauer

Results

This three-day-long virtual dialogue event on financing for climate-related projects provided many opportunities for a fruitful exchange between the participating cities and experts, allowing for both the exchange of industry-based knowledge as well as peer-based learning. As a common thread, the following points were consistently stressed throughout the course of the sessions: 

• Project proposals must convey a compelling story that details their current situation, their developmental needs and their goals; 

• The need to improve the “bankability” of projects by addressing the financing needs and interests of funding organizations; 

• Through the inclusion of all stakeholders throughout the planning, execution and maintenance of projects, their sustainability can be enhanced. In some cases, it is necessary to bring all the stakeholders together in a common forum to promote interaction and a useful flow of information; 

• Detailed data is required at all levels to achieve an appropriate solution (and funding proposal). When this data is not available from government sources, alternative sources must be approached; and 

• Both behavioral change among the general public and institutional change within governance are crucial to the success of projects.