2025 marked significant growth for EBRD Green Cities, with the cities of Brasov (Romania), Mersin (Türkiye), Osh (Kyrgyzstan) and Tuzla Canton (Bosnia and Herzegovina) joining the network. Implementation of Green Cities investments reached major milestones, while new investments were in a broader range of sectors, including resilience, climate adaptation, water and buildings.

Thank you to our Mayors, Green City Officers, donors and partners for their ongoing support. This year’s achievements reflect our strong collaboration.

Investments in green and climate action

There are now 106 investments in the Green Cities portfolio, all of which are delivering impact – including annual CO₂ equivalent savings, water savings or wastewater treated, energy savings, and material savings. 

In 2025, 14 Green Cities investment projects were signed, totalling EUR 244 million. This includes two trigger projects in Osh (Kyrgyz Republic) that focus on improving water treatment facilities and deploying electric public transport, the Lviv wastewater project (Ukraine) which improves water quality and availability, urban improvements in Timisoara (Romania) that rehabilitate and modernise the district heating network as well as regeneration of the city's historic district, and the Amman Landfill Cell 5 Capping project (Jordan) which mitigates methane emissions. 

There has also been significant progress in implementing ongoing projects:

In Amman (Jordan), 15 electric buses were delivered and put into operation, marking the city’s first electric public transport service.

95 new buses were delivered to Bishkek (Kyrgyz Republic), bringing the total, when combined with those delivered in 2024, to 219. The project enhances passenger convenience, safety, and comfort of urban transport, while also reducing the environmental impact.

The first two phases of the works on rehabilitation and expansion of existing water supply and wastewater networks in Banja Luka (Bosnia and Herzegovina) were completed, improving access, quality and reliability of drinking water to residents.

In Alba-Iulia (Romania), works on the rehabilitation of the transport network were completed. The project promotes a modal shift from private vehicles to public and non-motorised transport that will improve the air quality as well as accessibility, safety and security.

Works on the retrofit of municipally owned residential buildings in Walbrzych (Poland) have been completed. The project renovated the buildings and converted the coal-based heating to heat pumps or gas-based heating, reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.

Ankara (Türkiye) celebrated the first day of construction of its Dikimevi-Natoyolu metro line. Once implemented, the metro will provide clean and accessible public transport between the city centre and the Mamak district.

The tender was awarded for a consultant to prepare technical studies and detailed designs for the River Bic rehabilitation and flood protection project in Chisinau (Moldova).

In Dushanbe (Tajikistan), the contract was awarded for a consultant to support project implementation and supervision for the riverside transport infrastructure project which will improve public, electric and active mobility. With the documentation now ready, the tender for the main contractor will be launched shortly.

Two Green Cities projects won awards:

The Green Eurobond issued by Georgia Global Utilities to support the water sector operations in Tbilisi (Georgia) won Deal of the Year from Global Banking and Markets Awards, as well as EMEA Finance Awards in two separate categories: Best Green Bond in Central & Eastern Europe under Achievement Awards and Best Water Deal under Project Finance Awards.

Novi Sad’s solar thermal plant (Serbia) won Best Urban Infrastructure Deal in Central & Eastern Europe from EMEA Finance Awards. The project combined innovative technologies to demonstrate replicable decarbonisation solutions.

Green City Action Plans (GCAPs)

The GCAP Methodology has been fully revised and now features a fresh new look! Explore the updated version here, available in multiple languages.  

The EBRD supported Alba Iulia (Romania), Bursa (Türkiye) and Novi Sad (Serbia) to complete their GCAP development in 2025, while the ones for Guelmim (Morocco) and Osh (Kyrgyz Republic) are underway. 

Amman is aiming to raise their sustainability ambitions by developing a GCAP 2, which will build on the previous GCAP and revised methodology.  

In 2025, Green Cities organised 7 stakeholder activities across 3 cities in the form of workshops, capacity-building events and surveys.

Outreach, engagement and knowledge sharing

In 2025, three virtual meetings were held with Green City Officers, focusing on Urban Heat Resilience, Public-Private Partnerships, and Urban Regeneration. Featured speakers included Eleni Myrivili, Global Chief Heat Officer at UNEP and former Deputy Mayor of Athens, and Salim Bensmail, Executive Director at Meridiam.

In collaboration with the Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI), ICLEI Europe, the Covenant of Mayors and the European City Facility, EBRD Green Cities hosted a workshop on Navigating access to innovative financial instruments for green cities and regions during the European Week of Regions and Cities 2025 in October.

At the C40 Mayor’s Summit and Bloomberg’s COP30 Local Leaders Forum in Rio in November, EBRD Green Cities participated in the Global Platform for Sustainable Cities Mayors Roundtable and Urban Nature Forum and the Global Innovation Summit - Urban Transitions Mission event. We also joined the EBRD delegation at COP30 in Belem, with the Head of our Green Cities programme moderating a high-level panel on city climate finance on Urban Day.

As the EBRD welcomed Sub-Saharan African countries as new member states in 2025, an EBRD delegation engaged in discussions at the Green and Resilient UrbanShift Africa Forum 2025 in Nairobi in February, which highlighted key focus and challenge areas in infrastructure investment for African cities.  

Look out for lots of activities in 2026, celebrating 10 years of EBRD Green Cities. We hope to engage with you in June 2026 at our flagship Green Cities event in London (or via livestream).