Publication: Low Carbon Cities: Exploring New Crediting Approaches to Deliver Carbon and Climate Finance
Date
2018-09-27
ISSN
Published
2018-09-27
Author(s)
World Bank Group
Abstract
By 2050, two-thirds of the planet’s
population will live in urban centers, and nearly 90
percentof the 2.5 billion new urban dwellers will live in
Africa and Asia. The world’s urban areas wereresponsible for
around 70 percent of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2013,
and that numbercould grow by 50 percent by 2050 if current
trends continue. In 2015, world leaders committed to
limiting the global temperature increase to well below 2
degrees Centigrade and to pursuing efforts to reach a 1.5
degrees Centigrade limit in the context of the Paris
Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC). The Paris Agreement invitescities
to scale up climate action, and over two-thirds of
participating countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions
(NDCs) mention urban action. More than 70 percent of the
global low emissions and climate-resilient infrastructure
will be built in urban areas, at an estimated cost of 4.5 to
5.4 trillion USD per year. As highlighted by the Cities
Climate Finance Leadership Alliance (CCFLA), scarce climate
finance resources must be used strategically to both
increase the amount of funding available and as part of a
process of enabling and levering existing and new financing
to flow from a broad range of sources, most importantly from
the private sector. It is essential for cities to diversify
and blend their sources of finance and tap the full spectrum
of resources available to raise funds for climate action.
However, successful funding for climate action—notably in
developing countries—needs to overcome barriers such as the
lack of creditworthiness of subnational governments,
insufficient access to capital markets and international
mechanisms, and lack of financial and technical skills and
human resources.
Citation
“World Bank Group. 2018. Low Carbon Cities: Exploring New Crediting Approaches to Deliver Carbon and Climate Finance. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30611 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”