PARIS, December 4, 2015 ¡ª ľ¹ÏÓ°Ôº supports the ¡®' report launched today by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and international partners at the Climate Summit for Local Leaders at Paris City Hall, taking place on the margins of the UN Climate Conference in Paris.
¡°Today our cities account for about 80 percent of GDP generated worldwide. But our cities are under strain¡and the strain will only increase,¡± said Rachel Kyte, World Bank Vice President for Climate Change. ¡°In just 30 years from now, the number of people living in cities will increase by 1.5 times to 6 billion, adding 2 billion more urban residents. With those bulging cities comes increased demand for services and finance.¡±
Kyte added, ¡°It means we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build livable, resilient, low-carbon cities. We must seize the opportunity. Too many cities today are facing a critical shortage in tapping into the finance they need.¡±
The report says most cities do not yet generate sufficient fiscal resources or have difficulty in accessing financial markets, blocking critical investments necessary to put them on a sustainable, resilient lower carbon path. In fact, World Bank research shows that only 20 percent of the world¡¯s largest cities have the basic analytics necessary for low carbon planning, and only 4 percent of the 500 largest cities are creditworthy in international markets.
The report notes that about US$4.1 to $4.3 trillion will be needed to be spent on urban infrastructure every year just to keep up with projected growth in a ¡°business-as-usual¡± scenario, and an estimated incremental 9-27 percent (US$0.4-$1.1 trillion) more capital investment that will be necessary to make this urban infrastructure low-emission and climate-resilient.
According to Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez, Senior Director for the World Bank¡¯s Social, Urban, Rural and Resilience Global Practice, ¡°Many countries are looking at their cities as engines for advancing national growth. ľ¹ÏÓ°Ôº is working hard to support this growth and to find ways to bridge the gap in urban climate finance. Last year the World Bank provided over US$3 billion in urban climate finance and technical assistance to help our clients build climate smart cities.¡±
The report highlights city creditworthiness is a major challenge. In response to this need, the World Bank Group has been running ¡°credit worthiness academies¡± ¨C training over 500 city officials from more than 180 cities to improve their financial management practices to boost their chances of access to private capital.
ľ¹ÏÓ°Ôº is also helping governments think through the fiscal transfer policy reforms needed to support additional climate-smart investments.
¡°We think it¡¯s possible to do more,¡± said Ijjasz-Vasquez. ¡°We applaud the CCFLA for this first-of-its-kind report, and look forward to working with other CCFLA members to overcome these challenges, improving peoples¡¯ lives and protecting their future.¡±
The ¡®State of the City Climate Finance¡¯ report can be found .