The low-carbon investment landscape in C40 cities

New analysis shows that between 2011 and 2015, C40 cities reported having invested US$1.5 billion in low carbon infrastructure projects and programmes.

C40 cities have disclosed capital costs for roughly 15% of the sustainable infrastructure projects currently being developed, yet even this fraction of projects amounts to a planned investment of US$15.5 billion – implying that the total investment across C40 would be much greater. This demonstrates the sheer scale of the immediate opportunity for collaboration with the private sector. The accompanying spreadsheet is a beta pipeline of all the reported low-carbon infrastructure projects across C40 cities. It highlights that there are over 3,000 low-carbon infrastructure projects currently being planned worldwide across C40 cities – an average of 20-40 per C40 city – and over 700 in the Buildings sector.

Recent C40 research Deadline 2020 has estimated that up to 2050, C40 cities will need to invest over US$1 trillion on new climate action and in renewing and expanding infrastructure – with US$375 billion of this needed over the next four years alone in order to get on the trajectory required to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

This magnitude of investment can only be delivered through collaboration with business and investors, as both Deadline 2020 and CDP’s 2016 Cities report highlight. Currently, C40 city governments are unable to fully finance the low carbon infrastructure needed across C40 cities, but they have a key role in creating enabling conditions to secure the required private sector investment.

In order to accelerate climate action, capacity development within cities and for investors is urgently required. C40 research indicates that accessing and attracting finance are some of the most significant barriers that mayors face when delivering on their climate change plans, while the finance industry reports a lack of understanding of the low carbon technology being deployed and experience in the financing models cities use to fund infrastructure projects. A key step in increasing the interface between cities and financial institutions is for cities to improve project development information and disseminate and communicate climate change-related projects to the finance industry.