EU Policy and Support for Climate Finance for Sustainable Urban Development

This paper, written by Carl Wright, investigates how local government, primarily in developing countries, is able to access climate finance required for sustainable urban development and reaching Zero Carbon targets with special reference to securing development finance from the European Union, EU. It examines how cities, local, and regional government play a key role in sustainable urbanisation and managing the effects of climate change, highlighting that cities consume two thirds of the world’s energy supplies and account for 70% of global C02 emissions. The paper identifies EU climate finance opportunities for local government and the modalities and instruments involved, underlining the new ‘Team Europe Initiatives’ (TEI) bringing together EU, Member States and other funding partners around core priority areas and the Green Deal. A final section provides practical recommendations on how local government, supported by the Commonwealth Local Government Forum and other partners, can access climate finance, notably from international development organisations, including the EU, drawing on the evidence gathered in the paper.