Equitable Urban Climate Finance: Redirecting Capital to Secondary Cities and Informal Settlements

While global climate finance reached USD 1.9 trillion in 2023, and climate funding more than doubled between 2018 and 2022, most cities are still unable to access these resources. On top, a systemic injustice persists as only a marginal percentage of funding targets secondary cities and informal settlements, leaving the world’s most vulnerable populations without sufficient financial support.

By highlighting successful case studies, this session discusses structural barriers of urban climate finance causing stark geographic and social inequities. The critical lack of disaggregated data will be addressed to determine how much finance penetrates the "last mile" into informal settlements and secondary cities. By bringing together global funders and local practitioners, the workshop aims to identify the shifts in funding criteria needed to ensure climate capital serves the billion people living in the world's most precarious urban environments.

Insights from this dialogue will contribute to a joint, action-oriented publication, being developed through a series of events in 2026, outlining concrete steps to ensure climate capital is equitably distributed within and between cities.