Urban Adaptation and Resilience Finance Workstream Scoping Paper

The report identifies a severe funding gap in urban adaptation and resilience (A&R), noting that only 1% of tracked urban climate finance in 2021/22 was allocated to adaptation. It prioritizes 12 key challenges across demand-side, supply-side, and enabling environment domains, and maps 37 existing CCFLA member programs. The document highlights critical gaps in late-stage project preparation, private investment mobilization, and the integration of city needs into National Adaptation Plans (NAPs). It recommends matchmaking between project preparation facilities and financiers, the creation of business model blueprints, and the alignment of A&R taxonomies to unlock private capital.

• Urban adaptation and resilience (A&R) finance is severely underfunded; in 2021/22, only approximately USD 10 billion (1%) of the USD 831 billion in tracked urban climate finance flows was allocated to adaptation, with an additional USD 7 billion for projects with both adaptation and mitigation benefits.
• CCFLA members identified 12 priority challenges to scaling urban A&R finance, including cities' lack of expertise to develop investible projects, limited revenue streams, fragmented jurisdictional control, and restrictive mandates for International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and National Development Banks (NDBs).
• Existing support from CCFLA members is geographically concentrated in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs) and least developed countries (LDCs), with sub-Saharan Africa receiving the highest level of activity across demand, supply, and enabling environment domains.
• There is a significant decline in project preparation support as projects move toward investment; while 85% of programs provide assistance at the concept design stage, only 42% support cities at the structuring and transaction stage.
• Private investment in urban adaptation is disproportionately low compared to mitigation, with an average of only USD 4 billion in tracked private financing flowing to urban adaptation solutions annually from 2019 to 2022, versus USD 404 billion for mitigation.
• A critical gap exists in the integration of urban priorities into national climate policies; 55% of 194 reviewed Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) included no responses to urban adaptation challenges.
• Financial institutions lack standardized tools for assessing A&R projects; among 16 supply-side programs, only 19% use investment frameworks to assess risk-return profiles, and only one reported using a climate finance taxonomy.
• The report recommends that CCFLA facilitate matchmaking between project preparation facilities and financiers, document successful business models as blueprints, and convene members to align on A&R finance definitions and taxonomies.

APA

Kehew, R., Neto, M. C. P., Mayes, A., Abdullah, H., & Yang, K. (2025). Urban Adaptation and Resilience Finance Workstream Scoping Paper. Climate Policy Initiative. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Adaptation-scoping-paper.pdf

Chicago

Kehew, Robert, Manoel Carlos Pereira Neto, Alastair Mayes, Hamza Abdullah, and Kristiina Yang. Urban Adaptation and Resilience Finance Workstream Scoping Paper. Climate Policy Initiative, 2025. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Adaptation-scoping-paper.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Kehew |first1=Robert |last2=Neto |first2=Manoel Carlos Pereira |last3=Mayes |first3=Alastair |last4=Abdullah |first4=Hamza |last5=Yang |first5=Kristiina |title=Urban Adaptation and Resilience Finance Workstream Scoping Paper |publisher=Climate Policy Initiative |date=March 2025 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Adaptation-scoping-paper.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{kehew2025urban, author = {Kehew, Robert and Neto, Manoel Carlos Pereira and Mayes, Alastair and Abdullah, Hamza and Yang, Kristiina}, title = {{Urban Adaptation and Resilience Finance Workstream Scoping Paper}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2025}, month = mar, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Adaptation-scoping-paper.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }