CFF is currently supporting 34 different projects in cities in the Global South and is building on a global and far-reaching network that now represents over 700 million people. These cities collaborating with CFF have committed to halving their emissions by 2030 and are doing so by driving a series of projects to implement their climate action plans. CFF has led many successful cross-area collaborations to identify, prepare and accelerate urban climate protection projects.
In the past, cities such as Bogota, Curitiba, Durban, Guadalajara, Jakarta, Mexico City, Quezon City and Rio de Janeiro have already benefited from this and are on the way to reducing their own greenhouse gas emissions by around 2.5 million tons. In addition, CFF forms partnerships to support cities, for example in Africa. Here, climate-smart infrastructure projects can be jointly developed at the pace and scope required to achieve the climate goals.
The recently announced additional investments of approximately US$1 billion and the expansion of the partner network therefore illustrate the power of cross-area collaborations to move money away from fossil fuels towards green and equitable cities, according to CFF. This scaling of initiatives on a global scale would therefore be necessary so that cities have the resources to make their contribution to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2030.
Nonetheless, there remains a significant gap between available funds for urban climate action and current investments. According to CFF, both public and private actors must therefore become even more active in order to support cities in overcoming the climate crisis in an effective and timely manner. The possibilities for acceleration through cross-area partnerships are also a topic to be discussed at the UN climate conference COP27 from November 6th to 18th.
