Breaking barriers: channelling climate finance to local government

In Africa, 277 billion USD must be mobilised annually to meet 2030 climate goals. However, at current levels, at least nine times more climate finance is required to meet this need. The Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa (CoM SSA) Secretariat, in partnership with the Association of Local Authorities in Namibia (ALAN), brought financiers, local and national governments together at its first in-person climate finance learning lab in Windhoek, Namibia, last month. 

 

Cities are first responders in the fight against climate change, and unlocking climate finance is key to implementing catalytic projects in African cities and towns. In Namibia, climate change is already increasing the frequency and intensity of droughts and floods, wildfires and coastal erosion. While many cities and towns in the country have developed plans, and have identified key projects to mitigate and manage the threat of climate change, many still require additional capacity to develop these projects to a point where they are able to access climate finance to make these plans a reality.

 

Through CoM SSA, 56 city-level projects across the sub-Saharan Africa region have been supported, representing a total investment volume of EUR 436 million. Although this is a significant achievement, much more needs to be done to attract the scale of finance needed to build resilient and low carbon infrastructure in Africa, to meet the continent’s development needs. Currently housed within climate plans developed with support of the CoM SSA initiative, are over 300 projects needing support. These African cities that have invested heavily in the development of such plans, must be supported in overcoming the challenges they face in gaining access to the finance needed to implement these plans.  Financers typically operate at a national or regional level, and funds rarely reach local governments directly. According to CoM SSA Regional Mayors Forum Chairperson and  Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCoM) Board member, Yawo Winny Dogbatse, Mayor of Kloto I (Togo), “African cities only receive around $3 billion a year in climate finance, amounting to less than 1% of global urban climate finance." Furthermore, local level projects need to have sufficient scale and ambition, often requiring working beyond one local government’s boundaries. City-level projects require specialist technical expertise to develop, which smaller/ intermediate local authorities often lack.