Unlocking finance: Transforming the Urban Climate Project Preparation Ecosystem – From Fragmentation to Scale

Despite growing climate finance commitments, cities continue to face a persistent gap between ambition and bankable investment pipelines. The paper "Transforming the Urban Climate Project Preparation Ecosystem" by The Partnering Initiative (TPI) argues that the core bottleneck is not capital scarcity, but fragmentation, misaligned incentives, and insufficient early-stage risk absorption in project preparation.

This session will present key findings from the TPI analysis and explore how an ecosystem approach — integrating flexible upstream support, clearer role differentiation across facilities, and stronger coordination through global platforms — can unlock scalable urban climate investment. Moving beyond single-project transactions, the discussion will focus on how portfolio approaches, improved handovers, and systemic capacity strengthening can accelerate implementation.

The session will engage practitioners, city representatives, and finance institutions in identifying practical reforms to make the urban climate finance pipeline more effective, inclusive, and investment-ready.