More than €5bn now mobilised to address environmental degradation across 52 cities.
Finance for the pioneering urban sustainability programme, EBRD Green Cities, is doubling in size with a new €2bn allocated to invest in green urban infrastructure over the next two years.
Set up in 2016 with €250m, the Green Cities programme was expanded in 2018 with a further €700m of EBRD funds, and again in 2020 with a further €950m.
EBRD Green Cities has also mobilised significant co-finance during this period, including from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) for concessional finance and the Clean Technology Fund (CTF). As a result, the new funding takes its total to more than €5bn.
The successful programme has already grown to include 52 cities, most recently the Turkish city of Gaziantep, which is also part of the BUILD UPON2 project.
Addressing climate change and environmental degradation is urgent. Cities worldwide are the source of at least three-quarters of emissions, making them a vital starting-point in tackling climate change. This is particularly true of cities in the EBRD regions – central and eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean – where obsolete urban infrastructure is often degrading the quality of life of citizens, increasing greenhouse gas emissions, and preventing communities from adapting to climate change.
All participating cities embark on a trigger project to improve their local environment and then work with the EBRD to develop a Green City Action Plan (GCAP) to create a tailor-made list of further environmental investments and policy actions most suitable to address their environmental challenges.
EBRD Green Cities investments help save nearly 1.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent a year and the November 2021 funding extension will continue to focus on improvements to the core urban sectors of urban transport, water and waste water, solid waste management, district energy, street lighting and low-carbon and climate-resilient buildings.
