Assessing National Enabling Framework Conditions for Urban Climate Finance

The 'Assessing National Enabling Framework Conditions for Urban Climate Finance' is a guide and tool developed by the Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance (CCFLA) and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). It provides a standardized framework for national governments to evaluate and improve the regulatory, institutional, and financial conditions—referred to as Enabling Framework Conditions (EFCs)—that facilitate subnational governments' access to climate finance.

• The National Assessment Tool consists of 64 dimensions organized into four primary categories: Climate Policy, Budget and Finance, Climate Data, and Vertical and Horizontal Coordination.
• The tool's primary objective is to help national government officials identify strengths and gaps in national EFCs to enhance urban governments' access to climate finance and facilitate recommendations for improvement.
• The assessment process follows a six-step methodology: institutional set-up and mapping, preliminary data collection, a multistakeholder inception workshop, preparation of results, a final validation workshop, and the implementation of follow-up actions such as roadmaps or blueprints.
• The 'Budget and Finance' category evaluates critical financial architectures, including the existence of national funding mechanisms for subnational climate targets, systems of intergovernmental transfers, fiscal decentralization, and the ability of subnational governments to access capital through borrowing or municipal bonds.
• The tool emphasizes the importance of climate data, assessing whether national governments provide digitalized databases, support for local research centers, and technical assistance to ensure subnational data follows 'Transparency, Accuracy, Consistency, Comparability and Completeness (TACCC)' principles.
• The guide provides real-world examples of strengthened EFCs, such as Morocco's NDC including strong urban content, the Philippines' Climate Change Act mandating local climate action plans, and South Africa's Local Government Climate Change Support Programme (LGCCSP) facilitating vertical coordination.

APA

Press-Williams, J., & Masale, E. (2024). Assessing National Enabling Framework Conditions for Urban Climate Finance. Climate Policy Initiative. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/National-Assessment-Tool.pdf

Chicago

Press-Williams, Jessie, and Eyerusalem Masale. Assessing National Enabling Framework Conditions for Urban Climate Finance. Climate Policy Initiative, 2024. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/National-Assessment-Tool.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Press-Williams |first1=Jessie |last2=Masale |first2=Eyerusalem |title=Assessing National Enabling Framework Conditions for Urban Climate Finance |publisher=Climate Policy Initiative |date=July 2024 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/National-Assessment-Tool.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{presswilliams2024assessing, author = {Press-Williams, Jessie and Masale, Eyerusalem}, title = {{Assessing National Enabling Framework Conditions for Urban Climate Finance}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2024}, month = jul, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/National-Assessment-Tool.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }