EBRD partners with global city mayors to scale up green urban financing

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has partnered with city mayors from all over the world to mobilise more than $1.5 billion in urban investment to help combat climate change.

The bank announced this week a partnership with the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCMCE), which is an international alliance of more than 7,500 cities and local governments that promote voluntary action against climate change, to create the Green Cities Climate Finance Accelerator.

Under the new partnership, EBRD will seek to drive climate action in up to 60 cities through providing over $500 million in ‘first-mover’ financing hoping to leverage additional contributions for city action plans and projects with a total of $1.5 billion.

Suma Chakrabarti, EBRD President, said that in order to achieve results in climate action in cities, “the EBRD will bring its deep and specific expertise in working with shareholders and financing their projects”.

He also added that the initiative can act as a lessons-learned platform to be replicated in different regions across the world. He said: “The structure and specific targets of this financing accelerator provide a working operational model which can be replicated with other financial institutions across regions of the world and built-up to a global scale”.

The partnership lies under the umbrella of GCMCE’s “Global Urbis” project, a global initiative which will help fill the urban financing gap which is currently preventing many cities from implementing climate action programmes.

To further this mission, the GCMCE also partnered with the European Investment Bank (EIB), which will play the role of offering the necessary financial advice  to increase investment in cities.

Maroš Šefčovič, Co-Chair of the Global  Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy, and Vice President of the European Commission, said: "Since signing the Paris Agreement, Mayors have demonstrated the power of local action to make their cities and our planet more sustainable.

“The Global Covenant of Mayors' strong partnerships with the European Commission, the EIB and EBRD, will fill a much needed gap by providing cities with new levels of access to investments, financing, and advice critical to furthering urban climate action”.