Why COP30 must ramp up climate finance for cities

Philip Yang is a COP30 special envoy for cities and founder of Urbem. Robert Muggah is the co-founder of Igarape Institute and a partner of Bioverse and SuperNature.

Cities are where the climate and nature crises will be won or lost. Home to nearly two-thirds of the global population and generating almost three-quarters of greenhouse gas emissions, cities are pivotal to climate action.

When COP30 convenes in the Brazilian city of Belém this November, it must elevate cities from the margins to the center of global climate negotiations. After all, cities are not only engines of decarbonization and hubs of innovation—they are also the frontline of climate resilience.

For years, urbanization was largely absent from the formal stages of climate diplomacy. This began to shift at COP21 in Paris, when an agreement formally recognized the role of subnational governments in achieving emissions targets and climate adaptation goals. A Paris Pledge further amplified city voices in global climate dialogues.

Since then, city advocates have assumed an increasingly prominent role. At COP29 in Baku, cities took center stage.  Over 160 governments endorsed the Multisectoral Action Pathways (MAP) Declaration, committing to more inclusive urban planning, sustainable mobility, green jobs, and nature-positive infrastructure. Development banks pledged $120 billion in urban infrastructure financing by 2030, a meaningful step, though still far short of what cities require.

The rising presence of mayors and urban networks in climate diplomacy reflects a broader transformation in global governance. Today, urban economies generate over 80% of global GDP and consume more than 75% of all energy. And leading city networks, such as C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group and the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, are mobilizing thousands of municipalities to ramp-up action.

Yet urban ambition continues to outpace available financing. Most multilateral funding is still routed through national governments, and cities, especially in lower- and middle-income countries, often lack the regulatory authority, planning capacity, and creditworthiness needed to attract private investment.

This creates a bottleneck, particularly where irregular urban expansion meets acute climate vulnerability.

The COP30 organizers are committed to putting cities front and center in Belém. Both large metropolitan regions and rapidly growing secondary cities hold enormous potential for emissions reductions and climate resilience. For example, measures to expand green infrastructure and expand parks and urban gardens in cities can mitigate urban heat islands while also reducing the risks of flooding.

There is also a push at COP30 to promote more climate and nature positive cities. Compact urban planning that brings residential areas closer to jobs cuts commuting times and reduces pollution. At the same time, investments in electrified public transit and expanded cycling and pedestrian infrastructure reduces reliance on cars and improves health. Retrofitting buildings, improving energy efficiency, and scaling nature-based solutions are all cost-effective strategies with multiple pro-climate benefits.

COP30 will also focus on frontier cities that play an outsized role in shaping patterns of deforestation, biodiversity loss, and emissions.

Cities in Brazil's cattle and agricultural corridors and Zambia’s copperbelt are at the edge of forests and extractive zones. It is important to broaden the scope of the “just transition” agenda beyond coal, to include land-intensive urban economies reliant on soy, livestock, timber, and mining.

Another critical priority for COP30 involves scaling-up urban climate finance, especially for greener transportation, energy and building.

Currently, just 23% of the $800 billion in annual public urban climate finance needed by 2030 has materialized. Proposals include expanding access to urban-dedicated finance mechanisms, such as the Green Cities Facility within the Green Climate Fund and the Sustainable Cities program of the Global Environment Facility.

But for these resources to be effective, they must be accessible, standardized, and tailored to the operational realities of municipal governments. Critically, they also need to act as levers to unlock blended finance from private capital markets if cities are going to have any hope of bridging the financing gap for mitigation and adaptation which is estimated to be in the trillions of dollars from 2030-2050.

Another COP30 priority is the promotion of nature based and circular economy systems in cities. This includes measures such as wetland restoration, rewilding of degraded areas, permeable pavement, and urban forests to reduce emissions, curb heat, and enhance livability, especially for the most vulnerable.

While many of these approaches have gained traction in cities across Europe, they must become the global norm.

COP30 is a pivotal opportunity not only to finally scale-up urban finance, but also to fast-track nature-positive, climate-resilient urban development where it matters most.

Elevating cities to the center of both the negotiation and implementation agendas is essential to delivering a just and actionable response to the climate crisis for the billions who live in cities and for the ecosystems they help shape.