Financing for Cities

The urgent need to address climate change and finance climate adaptation is increasingly apparent. Cities worldwide face challenges in valuing and investing in natural capital and climate solutions even though there are a plethora of financing solutions offered.

This plenary explores how cities can unlock innovative financing strategies, while catalysing partnerships to scale up investments. 

Led by World Bank Group

Financing Resilient Cities: Lessons from the World Bank will explore practical approaches to bridging the urban infrastructure financing gap and strengthening city resilience. Drawing on World Bank expertise and global operations in East Asia, the Pacific, and South Asia, the session will highlight innovative financing solutions, climate adaptation strategies, and institutional approaches that enable cities to build resilient and sustainable urban systems. 

Featuring insights from the World Bank’s Global Director for Urban, Resilience and Land, Practice Managers, technical experts, and city representatives, the townhall-style session will combine high-level perspectives, project experiences, and audience engagement. Participants will gain actionable lessons from flagship reports, including Unlocking Subnational Financing and Banking on Cities, and from salient cases that demonstrate how governments and development partners can mobilize resources and scale resilient urban development. 

Cities are drivers of jobs and development in our rapidly urbanizing world. This growth will need investment in green buildings, transport, energy, waste, water, and other urban services. Over half the cost of city climate action plans must mobilize private capital, underscoring the essential role cities play in convening businesses and financial institutions to advance green and resilient infrastructure. IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is uniquely positioned to help cities and mayors identify and enable investments in sustainable urban development. 

This session will showcase cities and corporations that have utilized IFC advisory and investment services—including APEX Cities, EDGE Buildings, and Utilities4Climate. It will offer a practical forum for knowledge sharing, technical exchange, and networking among city representatives and private sector stakeholders to advance the delivery of climate-smart infrastructure.

Led by Urban Land Institute (ULI)

As cities push toward bold, future-focused visions, capital remains grounded in one question: what is truly investable today?

This session brings together investors, developers, operators and experts to unpack what private capital is actually underwriting—versus what remains aspirational. The discussion will explore which sectors are attracting real investment, from data centres and living to selective regeneration, and why some “future city” concepts struggle to meet return thresholds.

Panellists will also examine the role of capital markets in shaping successful cities, and the tension between sustainability ambitions and investment realities. 

Practical, and candid, this session moves beyond vision to focus on what it really takes to make cities bankable.

Cities, home to over half the world’s population and source of more than 70% of global GHG emissions, stand as the frontline against climate change. Without bold urban action, net-zero and Paris Agreement goals remain unattainable.

CDP’s 2025 data reveals thousands of city-led projects in clean mobility, nature-based solutions, building retrofits, and resilience—yet many stall early due to limited technical assistance and finance. The core barrier: data gaps. Investors, DFIs, and MDBs require robust environmental, resilience, and governance data to assess risks and structure deals, but cities often lack clarity on specifics.

Standardised local data builds project confidence, enhances investment-readiness, aligns policies, enables blended finance, and scales impact. 

This session convenes mayors, DFIs, MDBs, UN agencies, investors, and project preparation facilities to identify essential data, transforming urban climate ideas into procurement-ready pipelines.