EBRD Green Cities was delighted to participate in this year's London Climate Action Week, which took place from 21-29 June and convened to discuss how to accelerate climate action globally.

The team was pleased to start the week by hosting a workshop organised by the Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance (CCFLA) for its members at EBRD HQ on Monday, 23 June, which focused on scaling project preparation support for cities and getting a better connection to the finance. In an afternoon of lively exchange, representatives of city networks, project preparation facilities, financial institutions and governments advanced a shared vision for strengthening the project preparation ecosystem and closing the urban climate finance gap.

At the CCFLA Annual Assembly which took place at the Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre on Thursday, 26 June, the EBRD hosted a session in collaboration with Meridiam, the Catalytic Finance Foundation, and the C40 Cities Finance Facility (CFF). This session introduced a fresh perspective by showcasing four real-world examples of climate infrastructure financing. These case studies served as a basis for drawing practical lessons and insights. The interactive format encouraged reflection on similar initiatives and facilitated the collection of additional case studies for broader sharing.

Exemplifying how collaboration of city networks can deepen the impact of urban climate action, Lin O'Grady, Head of EBRD Green Cities, and Garrett Patrick Kelly, NetZero Cities Mission Coordinator for Sarajevo joined the keynote discussion The Climate Politics Debate - Galvanising International Cooperation and Collaboration to solve the BIG policy issues on Tuesday, 24 June. The discussion highlighted the importance of engaging key stakeholders to create buy-in and forging a strong connection between urban planning and financing to ensure that planned projects can be successfully implemented.

Both Garrett and Lin share longstanding collaboration with Sarajevo, which joined EBRD Green Cities in 2018 and has been selected as one of the mission cities of the EU's NetZero Cities programme. Since developing and adopting its Green Cantonal Action Plan, Sarajevo has implemented multiple actions to improve air quality and increase climate resilience in the water, buildings, and urban transport sectors.

As part of the Cities Climate Action Summit, Maya Almog, Associate in the Green Cities team, participated in the panel discussion Scaling up climate finance for cities – what sub-national leaders need from COP30 on Tuesday, 24 June. Maya valued the exchange with multi-level actors to strengthen synergies, and highlighted the integration of policy, financing, and capacity building to effectively implement climate targets on the local level.

Providing a perspective of electric mobility in the EBRD's countries of operation, Ian Jennings, Associate Director and Sector Specialist for Urban Transport, joined the ResetConnect panel Powering Sustainable Mobility: Advancing Electric and Hydrogen Solutions for Delivery, Private Transport, and Residential Communities on Tuesday, 24 June. Ian shared the state of EV adoption across the Bank's regions and explained how the EBRD is leveraging its Green Cities programme to support cities in planning sustainable urban mobility, deploying charging infrastructure and adopting electric fleets.

During the session Financing Climate Resilience Projects in Cities at the Climate Resilience Finance Summit on Friday, June 27, Lin O’Grady presented the model of the EBRD Green Cities programme, emphasizing the importance of aligning project planning with financing. Lin highlighted that the core challenge lies not in identifying sources of finance, but matching it with the expectations of cities, where the preference lies for grants and highly concessional loans. The session also featured contributions from George Scott of the Catalytic Finance Foundation and Ariane Pevide of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.

The week's many fruitful conversations highlighted that the success of EBRD Green Cities in delivering urban climate action lies in the programme’s close integration of its key building blocks:

- Comprehensive urban planning through Green City Action Plans

- Financing (public and private, including direct lending to cities) and de-risking investments in sustainable urban infrastructure

- Creating enabling environments to mobilise the private sector

The Green Cities team looks forward to enhancing synergies with partners to support its cities in improving quality of life for their citizens by mitigating emissions, adapting to the effects of climate change, and building resilience.