Connecting public sector leadership with private sector innovation
Nearly 1,700 companies worldwide now recognise that moving to a zero-carbon economy is vital for sustainable growth[1]. In addition, almost 11,000 companies worth 41% of the entire stock market’s value have promised to reach net-zero emissions.
The private sector plays a key role in supporting climate action plans, cutting urban emissions, and creating good green jobs. Yet C40 research shows that working with the private sector remains one of the biggest challenges cities face in advancing climate action. Lack of trust, insufficient resources, low capacity, and unclear value propositions often prevent cities and businesses from collaborating on climate action. Building trust, transparency, and policy consistency can overcome these barriers and give businesses the predictability needed to invest. C40 helps cities overcome this by helping to build genuine partnerships that go beyond traditional consultations. Instead, it focuses on co-creating projects with businesses and communities. These partnerships deliver measurable emissions reductions, create local jobs, and empower residents.
By setting joint climate goals aligned to local priorities, C40 programmes have engaged more than 10,000 businesses across the network.
What makes city-business collaboration work
Effective partnerships between cities and businesses require approaches that move beyond traditional models. Successful collaboration must:
Start with shared climate goals
Joint commitments aligned with local priorities lay the foundation for meaningful action. When cities and businesses agree on specific targets, they can coordinate resources and track progress together.
Empower local communities
Collaboration happens when residents help design solutions, rather than being passive recipients of services. Community involvement fosters support and ensures that projects address real needs.
Create tangible outcomes
Moving from consultation to co-creation means delivering specific projects. These projects aim to cut emissions, create jobs, and provide community benefits within clear timeframes.
Build lasting infrastructure for partnership
Successful collaboration requires ongoing structures, networks, forums, and platforms that enable continuous dialogue and coordination beyond individual projects.
Scale solutions across cities
What works in one city can inform approaches in other cities. Sharing learnings and best practices across the C40 network helps accelerate climate action globally.
Access resources and programmes that facilitate city-business climate action
These programmes provide different entry points for cities, businesses, and communities to collaborate on climate solutions that deliver local benefits while contributing to global goals.
Build long-term partnerships
The City-Business Climate Alliance (CBCA) helps cities develop and sustain partnerships with businesses from conception through long-term implementation. Connect with a global network sharing expertise and advocacy.
Decarbonise freight transport
Laneshift accelerates electric truck deployment in cities across India and Latin America by developing EV infrastructure, running demonstration projects, and partnering with governments, businesses, and financiers to overcome barriers and support a just transition.
Accelerate zero-emission public transport
The Zero Emission Bus Rapid-deployment Accelerator (ZEBRA) Partnership supports Latin American cities in transitioning to zero-emission buses, building deployment strategies, securing investments, and sharing best practices to improve air quality and reduce emissions.
Transform urban food systems
The Good Food for Healthy Cities guide shows how cities can collaborate with food businesses, from supermarkets to canteens, to increase access to healthy, sustainable meals. The guide provides practical strategies for engaging the private sector in reducing food waste and shifting toward plant-rich diets that cut emissions while improving public health.
Accelerate building decarbonisation
The Private Building Decarbonisation Network connects cities working to reduce emissions from private buildings, sharing strategies on policy development, financing mechanisms, and engaging building owners to deliver comprehensive retrofits at scale.
Transform underutilised sites
Reinventing Cities is a global competition inviting multi-disciplinary teams to submit proposals that transform underutilised sites into beacons of sustainability and zero-carbon urban development.
Collaborate with industry to enable clean construction
C40’s Clean Construction Forum and the VISIBLE project support European cities to collaborate with key construction industry players in delivering a just and viable transition to a regenerative built environment.
Questions about C40’s business engagement programmes?
Contact C40’s City-Business Engagement team at info@city-businessclimatealliance.org to learn more about city-business climate collaboration and to join the global network.
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Programmes and Initiatives
Launched in partnership with The Climate Pledge – co-founded by Amazon and Global Optimism – in 2023, Laneshift is an international initiative to decarbonize freight trucks in developing countries.
The ZEBRA partnership was launched in 2019 to accelerate the deployment of zero emission buses in major Latin American cities.
This forum supports cities in driving the transition to resource-efficient, resilient and zero-emission construction by addressing the impacts of construction, such as emissions from materials extraction, manufacturing, assembly, transport, maintenance and end-of-life sorting.
