The State of Cities Climate Finance 2024

Tracked urban climate finance reached USD 831 billion in 2021/2022, more than doubling since 2017/2018. However, this remains severely insufficient compared to estimated annual mitigation needs of USD 4.3 trillion by 2030. Finance is heavily concentrated in developed economies and China, with critical gaps in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. While mitigation flows are dominated by transport and buildings, adaptation finance is significantly lower at USD 10 billion, primarily focused on water and wastewater. The report advocates for a '4C Urban Climate Finance Agenda'—Commitment, Collaboration, Capacity, and Capital Mobilization—to bridge the investment gap.

• Tracked urban climate finance flows more than doubled between 2017 and 2022, reaching an annual average of USD 831 billion in 2021/2022.
• There is a massive gap between current finance and mitigation needs; cities require an estimated USD 4.3 trillion annually until 2030 and over USD 6 trillion per year from 2031 to 2050 to align with a 1.5°C scenario.
• Urban climate finance is highly concentrated in developed economies and China, while flows to other emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs) and least developed countries (LDCs) are severely insufficient.
• Private finance accounted for 49% (USD 404 billion) of total urban climate finance in 2021/2022, with households and individuals being the largest private providers (USD 187 billion), primarily investing in electric cars.
• Urban adaptation finance is critically underfunded, reaching only USD 10 billion in 2021/2022, with 68% of these funds directed toward the water and wastewater sector.
• Transport is the largest recipient of urban mitigation finance, accounting for 52% (USD 422 billion) of such funds, followed by buildings and infrastructure (29%) and energy systems (19%).
• Four systemic challenges hinder the closing of the urban climate finance gap: insufficient commitment to urban action, weak enabling environments, city-level capacity gaps, and inadequate capital mobilization.
• The report proposes the '4C Urban Climate Finance Agenda'—Commitment, Collaboration, Capacity, and Capital Mobilization—as a framework to coordinate action across government levels and sectors.

APA

Press-Williams, J., Negreiros, P., Fernandes, P. D. A., Meattle, C., Abdullah, H., Vieira, A., Diaz, J., & Melling, B. (2024). The State of Cities Climate Finance 2024. Climate Policy Initiative. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/CCFLA-State-of-Cities-1.pdf

Chicago

Press-Williams, Jessie, Priscilla Negreiros, Pedro de Aragão Fernandes, Chavi Meattle, Hamza Abdullah, Arthur Vieira, Jose Diaz, and Ben Melling. The State of Cities Climate Finance 2024. Climate Policy Initiative, 2024. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/CCFLA-State-of-Cities-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{presswilliams2024state, author = {Press-Williams, Jessie and Negreiros, Priscilla and Fernandes, Pedro de Aragão and Meattle, Chavi and Abdullah, Hamza and Vieira, Arthur and Diaz, Jose and Melling, Ben}, title = {{The State of Cities Climate Finance 2024}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2024}, month = sep, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/CCFLA-State-of-Cities-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }