Going to town: How the Green Climate Fund can support a paradigm shift in cities

The report argues that while cities are critical for climate action, they face significant barriers in accessing international climate finance due to limited institutional capacity and rigid funding requirements. It proposes three access modalities for the GCF: promoting unconventional implementing entities, accrediting cities as implementing entities themselves, and utilizing Enhanced Direct Access (EDA) through mechanisms like a National City Facility. The authors emphasize that GCF should prioritize secondary cities and provide a diverse range of financial instruments to unlock domestic and local funding.

• Cities are essential for climate mitigation and adaptation because they house the majority of the global population and are responsible for over 70% of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions.
• Local authorities in the developing world, especially in second-tier cities, often lack the technical, institutional, and financial capacity to develop bankable project concepts or mainstream climate goals into urban planning.
• Cities face restricted access to international funding because they are often not seen as creditworthy by investors and funding entities like the GCF typically use national ministries as gateways.
• There is a massive funding gap for urban climate infrastructure in low and middle income countries, estimated by the World Bank at US$ 500 billion annually (half of a total US$ 1 trillion need).
• The report identifies three potential GCF access modalities for cities: 1) using unconventional implementing entities (IEs) like health ministries or civil society; 2) accrediting city administrations as IEs; and 3) using Enhanced Direct Access (EDA) to devolve decision-making to the national level, potentially via a National City Facility.
• The GCF should focus on secondary cities and offer a variety of financial instruments—including grants, loans, guarantees, and equity—to avoid competing with development banks that handle large-scale infrastructure.

APA

Junghans, L., Eckstein, D., Kreft, S., Syberg, M., & Weischer, L. (2016). Going to town: How the Green Climate Fund can support a paradigm shift in cities. Climate and Development Knowledge Network. http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Going-to-Town_final.pdf

Chicago

Junghans, Lisa, David Eckstein, Sönke Kreft, Marie Syberg, and Lutz Weischer. Going to town: How the Green Climate Fund can support a paradigm shift in cities. Climate and Development Knowledge Network, 2016. http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Going-to-Town_final.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Junghans |first1=Lisa |last2=Eckstein |first2=David |last3=Kreft |first3=Sönke |last4=Syberg |first4=Marie |last5=Weischer |first5=Lutz |title=Going to town: How the Green Climate Fund can support a paradigm shift in cities |publisher=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |date=April 2016 |url=http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Going-to-Town_final.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{junghans2016going, author = {Junghans, Lisa and Eckstein, David and Kreft, Sönke and Syberg, Marie and Weischer, Lutz}, title = {{Going to town: How the Green Climate Fund can support a paradigm shift in cities}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, year = {2016}, month = apr, url = {http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Going-to-Town_final.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }