Cities face significant challenges from climate change, including rising sea levels, droughts, floods, and storms. However, cities also contribute 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions, so both increasing resilience and reducing emissions in cities are crucial in tackling the climate crisis. Access to finance is a major obstacle for city administrations in developing innovative climate change infrastructure projects. Financial institutions require robust preparation and solid business cases before investing, often causing projects to fail due to lack of funding.
To address this issue, the Cities Finance Facility (CFF) acts as a link between cities and finance, supporting a green and just transition. The CFF, an award-winning project preparation facility under the UNFCCC, focuses on three components: preparing climate-relevant infrastructure projects for finance, linking projects to finance, and replicating successful approaches. Key sectors include mobility, renewable energy, waste management, and blue- and green infrastructure, offering benefits such as employment opportunities, improved health, and social equity. It is jointly implemented by the C40 Cities Network and GIZ.
The FRAME team within CFF is based in Germany and connects to the wider operational CFF teams, as well as supporting the management team on strategic positioning and political advisory. As a multi-donor initiative, currently funded by the German and British governments, CFF places a special importance on its reporting and management of the donor landscape. CFF began Phase 4 in November 2024, with key tasks for the upcoming months relating to the completion of Phase 3 work (i.e. impact reporting) and the set-up for the next phase (i.e. city selection).
