San Francisco, 13 September 2018 – Representing two of the largest networks of development financial institutions and cities in the world, the International Development Finance Club (IDFC) IDFC and C40 Cities committed today, at the San Francisco Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS), to collaborate in accelerating cities’ low-carbon and climate-resilient development.
Ms. Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris and Chair of C40 Cities, and Mr. Rémy Rioux, IDFC Chairperson and CEO of Agence Française de Développement (AFD), on the occasion of the GCAS, announced that C40 Cities and IDFC were committed through a joint declaration to work together in supporting cities on the following 4 priorities:
- Reinforcing financial and technical capacity within municipalities to access finance and implement lowcarbon and climate-resilient strategies and projects, by building on the financial knowledge contained in the IDFC member institutions and the C40 Cities Finance Facility.
- Developing and supporting the implementation of lowcarbon and climate-resilient urban plans by sharing best practices for climate action plan design and ensuring a wider spread of existing tools in areas such as sustainable infrastructure, renewable energy, energy efficiency, clean transport, and sustainable urban planning.
- Increasing access to finance for climate investments, by leveraging public and private funds dedicated to lowcarbon and climate-resilient projects; developing approaches and tools, including in collaboration with the C40 Cities Finance Facility, to significantly increase the number of finance-ready sustainable infrastructure projects in cities.
- Encouraging national governments to accelerate their commitments to support climate policies implemented by their local authorities, including their planning and investment in lowcarbon and climate-resilient urban infrastructure.
Rémy Rioux, IDFC Chairperson and CEO of AFD, underlined the importance of financial actors such as the national and regional development banks in implementing the Paris agreement at the cities level:
“Today, the International Development Finance Club, the biggest provider of public climate finance globally with USD 160 billion committed in 2016, and the C40, the largest network of megacities, are joining forces to increase climate ambition and action at city level. IDFC, a unique network of leading regional and national development banks throughout the world has a key role to play to support models of low-carbon and climate-resilient urban development that integrate all facets of sustainable development and catalyze their financing.”
C40 Cities, as a worldwide network of 96 megacities and their mayors that together represent 25% of world GDP and more than 700 million people, committed to accelerate climate action acknowledging that the window of opportunity to limit global warming to +1.5°C is closing rapidly.
Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris & Chair of C40 said, “This joint collaboration with IDFC will help to deliver low-carbon and climate-resilient development in cities, and focus on addressing two critical barriers faced by cities in the developing world: building their institutional capacity and enhancing their access to finance. We invite other financial institutions to join us in helping cities around the world to deliver on the Paris Agreement.