This press release was originally published on the CHAMP website.

Antalya, Nov 12 – Sweden, through Viable Cities, and the Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance (CCFLA) have launched the CHAMP Toolkit for Multilevel Climate Finance and Implementation, a practical resource to help national governments work with cities and regions to translate climate commitments into investment and delivery. The Toolkit connects guidance on multilevel coordination, enabling environments, investment planning, project preparation, and finance mobilization.

The launch marks an important step for the Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships (CHAMP) for Climate Action, which has successfully elevated the role of cities and local governments in national climate planning. As more countries incorporate subnational governments into their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and climate strategies, attention is increasingly shifting from political commitments to implementation.

“Turning climate commitments into delivery requires more than a pipeline of projects. It requires national governments, cities and partners to connect governance, investment planning, finance and demand around shared priorities,” said Olle Dierks, Sweden’s Focal Point for CHAMP and Head of Large-Scale Investments, Viable Cities. “The Toolkit brings together practical approaches and country experience to help governments make these connections in their own contexts.”

Developed as a web-based resource primarily for CHAMP-endorsing national governments, the Toolkit contributes directly to CHAMP’s Pledge 4 on NDC Investment and the finance pillar (Pillar 3) of the CHAMP Implementation Roadmap 2026-2028, helping governments strengthen collaboration across levels of government while advancing investment planning, project preparation, and finance mobilization.

The Toolkit brings together existing guidance, tools, and real-world implementation experiences into interconnected ‘Actions’ and ‘Implementation Pathways’ that governments can navigate and apply. The goal is to address a common challenge practitioners face: many valuable implementation tools exist, but they are fragmented, hard to find, and may lack guidance on when and in what order to apply them.

Complementary work led by Viable Cities is developing practical approaches to system demonstrators, local climate investment structures, aggregated purchasing power and national platforms. These explore how cities and national partners can coordinate implementation in real places, connect investment with finance, organize demand for low-carbon solutions and strengthen national support for local delivery.

“Countries often tell us they do not need more tools; they need support to adapt existing resources to their national context and help identifying, accessing and implementing solutions that already exist,” said Pandora Batra, Head of Governance and Diplomacy for the WRI-led CHAMP Secretariat. “The Toolkit responds directly to that need, providing a practical roadmap that helps governments identify relevant resources and use them more effectively.”

The Toolkit also showcases real-world ‘Country Journeys’, beginning with Sweden and Brazil, showing how national and subnational governments are developing multilevel approaches to climate finance and implementation. These journeys aim to inspire peer learning and offer practical insights that other countries can adapt to their own contexts. Sweden’s experience illustrates how Climate City Contracts and recurring collaboration between cities and national agencies can connect commitments, implementation, and learning. Over time, additional examples from countries across different geographies and income levels will be incorporated to further strengthen learning across the CHAMP community. The emphasis is on approaches that countries can adapt to their own institutions and locally defined priorities, rather than a single model to replicate.

“One of the most powerful features of the Toolkit is its focus on real implementation experiences,” said Luis Saenz, Head of Finance Advocacy and Policy, C40-GCoM Joint Program and the Lead of the CHAMP Finance Working Group. “Countries can learn not only from what has worked elsewhere, but also from the challenges, adaptations, and partnerships required to turn climate commitments into results.”

The CHAMP Finance Working Group is an open, voluntary and consultative body that brings together partners from across the CHAMP network to support coordination in advancing CHAMP’s finance goals. It facilitates knowledge exchange and the development of common positions on finance reform priorities, while supporting collaboration to integrate subnational priorities into national climate finance strategies, coordinate project preparation and advocate for reforms to finance institutions and climate funds.

“Achieving climate goals depends on translating plans into investable project pipelines,” said Priscilla Negreiros, Associate Director, CCFLA. “The CHAMP Toolkit helps bridge this gap by connecting governance, project preparation, and finance resources in one practical place, making it easier for countries and cities to navigate the journey from ambition to implementation.”

Sweden and CCFLA invite countries, cities and partners across the CHAMP community to contribute their own implementation experiences and relevant tools. The ambition is for the Toolkit to evolve as a living resource that reflects the diversity of implementation journeys taking place around the world. Explore the Toolkit at [toolkit.champ-climate.org] and contact the CCFLA Secretariat [ccflasecretariat@cpiglobal.org] to contribute a Country Journey or discuss its application.

About the CHAMP Toolkit for Multilevel Climate Finance and Implementation
The CHAMP Toolkit for Multilevel Climate Finance and Implementation is a web-based implementation resource designed to support countries in advancing multilevel climate finance and implementation. Developed by Viable Cities and CCFLA, as a contribution from Sweden to the CHAMP community, with input from the CHAMP Finance Working Group, it brings together existing tools, practical guidance and country experiences into five interconnected ‘Actions’ covering multilevel coordination, enabling environments, investment planning, project preparation and finance mobilization. Through its ‘Country Journeys’, the Toolkit also promotes peer learning by showcasing how countries are developing and connecting these approaches in practice.

About Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships (CHAMP)
Launched at COP28 by the COP Presidency and Bloomberg Philanthropies, CHAMP strengthens collaboration between national governments and cities, states and regions on climate policy and finance. The coalition bridges national ambition and subnational delivery and has grown to 80 endorsers, reflecting rising global momentum for multilevel climate governance. Together, CHAMP and its endorsing members represent 37% of the world’s population and 39% of global emissions, underscoring the coalition’s significant global footprint and its potential to drive meaningful climate action at scale. World Resources Institute serves as the Secretariat for CHAMP. For more information, visit champ-climate.org.

About Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance (CCFLA)
The Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance is a coalition of leaders committed to deploying finance for city-level climate action at scale by 2030. Trillions of dollars will be required to help cities build the low-emissions, resilient infrastructure necessary to combat and react to climate change. CCFLA is the leading multilevel and multistakeholder coalition aimed at closing the investment gap for urban subnational climate projects and infrastructure worldwide. The CCFLA Secretariat is hosted by Climate Policy Initiative.

About Viable Cities
Viable Cities is a strategic innovation program working towards the mission of Climate Neutral Cities 2030 with a good life for all within the boundaries of the planet. 48 Swedish cities and six national government agencies are part of the program. The program is supported through a joint initiative by Vinnova, the Swedish Energy Agency, and Formas, and coordinated by KTH Royal Institute of Technology. In 2025, Sweden joined the Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships (CHAMP) for Climate Action, with Viable Cities as a coordinator of Sweden’s engagement.

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Press contacts
Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships (CHAMP)
Bruno Felin
Communications Manager, CHAMP
bruno.felin@wri.org

Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance (CCFLA)
Angel Jacob
Senior Communications Consultant
Angel.Jacob@cpiglobal.org

Viable Cities/Sweden
Olle Dierks
Sweden’s Focal Point for CHAMP and Head of Large-Scale Investments, Viable Cities
Olle.Dierks@viablecities.se