Posted on: Aug 24th, 2023

Banking on cities: How innovative financing mechanisms can help close the urban climate investment gap?

11:00-13:30|19 September |New York, USA | In-person only

Venue: Orrick, (51 West 52nd Street, NY 10019-6142)

Today, private sector investment in urban climate projects represents only a small fraction of total flows, despite the growing evidence that private funds are available and commercial institutions are willing to commit. One of the main barriers preventing private investment in urban climate infrastructure projects is the lack of suitable and affordable financial instruments from the private sector.

Initiated by the German Federal Government at the United Nations Secretary General’s Climate Action Summit in 2019, and hosted by the Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance (CCFLA), the Leadership for Urban Climate Investment (LUCI) is a framework that tracks the contribution of 23 champion initiatives to closing the urban climate finance gap. LUCI is structured around four targets reflecting the entire urban climate finance value chain:

In particular, LUCI Target 4 aims to deploy 100 innovative financing mechanisms that support climate smart infrastructure in cities by 2025. This can only be achieved by an increased commitment and collaboration between LUCI initiatives and the private sector to identify and scale new financing mechanisms for climate-smart urban projects.

This event, held during the 2023 New York City Climate Week, will continue the Banking on Cities event series initiated by CCFLA in the 2022 New York City Climate Week with the Banking on Cities: How to boost private investment in green urban infrastructure? event. In particular, this event will bring major private institutions and LUCI initiatives together to discuss how to scale financing mechanisms for urban climate infrastructure projects.

Objectives
This year’s event will:
1. Showcase and give visibility to LUCI initiatives.
2. Reflect on how LUCI initiatives and the private sector can work together to scale the deployment of financing mechanisms for urban climate infrastructure projects, aiming at achieving LUCI Target 4.