Financing climate action in European cities: 2019 City Finance Lab winners announced

The City Finance Lab selects five promising financing solutions for urban climate mitigation and adaptation

Zurich, Switzerland, 9 December 2019 – In 2020, five innovative financing solutions will be developed and tested across Europe to unlock climate finance and transform how cities tackle climate challenges and build resilience.

Resulting from the second call for proposals by EIT Climate-KIC and South Pole's City Finance Lab (CFL), the five selected solutions will receive tailored technical advisory in 2020 to reach implementation. The solutions cover a variety of climate action themes:

• Packaged Investment for Smart Cities (PISC) by Bable Smart Cities, Europe
• Mainstreaming climate action and resilience with new municipal budget co-benefit indicators by the City of Paris, France
• Territorial carbon aggregator, a local carbon cooperative by the Urban Community of La Rochelle, France
• Place-based investment for new green infrastructure within city regeneration and development projects by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, UK
• Citizen household renewables and energy efficiency reward scheme by the Municipality of Aradippou, Cyprus

Unlocking more climate finance for sustainable cities is vital if we are to achieve a 1.5ºC world and build urban resilience against climate change impacts. In 2014, average urban climate finance investments represented less than 9% of commitments across nine major Development Finance Institutions. To increase current levels of urban climate finance, there is a significant need for innovative financing solutions.

These five latest initiatives were elected by the CFL's Selection Committee – a council of municipal finance experts from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Agence France Locale, Atkins, Climate Resilience Consulting and EIT Climate-KIC.

The initiatives were selected based on their innovativeness, their potential to mobilise public and private climate finance and their replicability to other cities and regions. This yielded a strong mix of climate mitigation and adaptation-oriented initiatives, covering a variety of sectors, (i.e. e-mobility, urban green spaces, energy efficiency and infrastructure resilience), while representing small, medium and large cities across Europe.

Since its launch last year, the CFL has already supported five innovative, replicable and scalable financing solutions that will drive investments into climate-resilient, low-carbon and green urban projects for sustainable cities in Europe.

One of these original solutions is the first-ever Green Participatory Budget, which was allocated an initial EUR 5 million in the City of Lisbon. The scaling and replication potential of this solution is significant when close to 2700 cities across the world have participatory budgets.

"The City Finance Lab is a platform for testing and implementing innovative financing solutions with the support of targeted experts. However, its true impact lies in the replication potential of the solutions that it supports – which multiplies its potential impact substantially," says Thomas Osdoba, Senior Advisor EIT Climate-KIC and CFL Selection Committee Member.

Throughout 2019, the CFL has stimulated the replication of the supported initiatives through knowledge sharing and capacity building, giving other cities in Europe and Worldwide the tools to implement similar solutions. In the long-term, the CFL aims to expand its activities beyond Europe to cities everywhere access to finance for cities is a challenge.

About the City Finance Lab: The City Finance Lab – a joint initiative of South Pole and EIT Climate-KIC – is a platform supporting the development of innovative, replicable, and scalable financing solutions that drive investment into climate-resilient, low-carbon and green urban projects for sustainable cities. Learn more on the website: www.cityfinancelab.com.