Daring Cities 2020: Innovative Climate Finance Case Studies

October 8, 2020 | 15:00 – 17:00 CET

This peer exchange session brings together city representatives and financial experts to share experience on using innovative climate financing tools. What works? How do you find the right tool? What lessons have been learned in projects that already have been implemented?

Local governments are at the frontline of climate action. Yet subnational governments still often struggle to access finance required for sustainable, low-to-no emission, climate resilient development and are uncertain using innovative instruments and trying new approaches.

With existing good practice, available tools and expertise, this session brings information and knowledge to city representatives – also encouraging them to share their questions and experiences with each other. The workshop will focus on approaches taken, exploring what worked well and why.

The session also provides a platform where local governments can interact with financial experts, helping each other to better understand how to find and use innovative financing tools such as green bonds, revolving fund, energy performance contract or crowdfunding for their climate project.

This interactive session offers a unique opportunity to showcase achievements, inspire each other, exchange ideas, and find solutions together. Join us!

Opening remarks

• Jean-Francois Habeau, Executive Director, FMDV, France

Moderator

• Eszter Mogyorósy, Head of Innovative Finance, ICLEI World Secretariat, Germany

Product launch speaker

• Robert Kirchner, Project Manager GIZ, Covenant of Mayors Sub Saharan Africa

Panel discussion facilitator

• Bella Tonkonogy, CPI Associate Director, CCFLA Secretariat

Panelists

• Otavio Calumby, Head of the Special Projects Office of the Municipality of Recife, Brazil
• Daniel Sullivan, Manager: Strategic Policy Branch, Cape Town, South Africa
• Dr. Vangelis Marinakis Electrical and Computer Engineer, National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece
• Christine Knapp, Sustainability Director for the City of Philadelphia, USA

Group discussion facilitators

• Paul Scharfenberger, Executive Director, Colorado Clean Energy Fund, USA
• Jonas Fleer, Programme Manager, Frankfurt School, Germany
• Rebecca Cameron, Senior Officer, ICLEI Africa, South Africa
• Maria Tapia, Lead Climate Change Specialist, Inter-American Development Bank, USA

Please note that this session had a 30-minute group discussion. The attendees were invited to join a breakout room on Zoom during the live session (at min. 01:08:19). The group discussions recordings are not available, however a comprehensive summary of the main findings has been shared starting at min. 01:08:27.

Daring Cities 2020: Test Your Pitch

27 October 2020 | 08:30 – 10:30  CET

One of the main bottlenecks identified why local governments continue to be unable to access climate finance is the limited knowledge about the needs and requirements of funders. Furthermore, they rarely have the opportunity to engage with them directly. In a similar way, financial institutions encounter difficulties in identifying bankable projects from sub-national governments and have limited exposure to the wide range of projects that cities have, nor do they understand the challenges and obstacles faced by cities in accessing finance and funding.

Now, this session aims to give tips and tricks of project pitching, highlighting the key elements and considerations, the DOs and DON´Ts, as well as giving practical advice.

In this pitching session funders and project developers can meet, discuss and test ideas. This facilitated process will allow the sharing of both implicit and explicit knowledge, which is essential for improved project preparation, bankability and access finance.

Participants divided in two (2) groups will work on eight (8) TAP and Urban LEDs project proposals. In each group 4 project developers can test their pitch using a standard template, and get recommendations from the group and a jury consisting of financial partner/institution representatives.

Contributors

Facilitator: Ms Inga Beie, Project Coordinator FELICITY, GIZ

Speaker presentation: Ms Eszter Mogyorósy, Head of Innovative Finance, ICLEI World Secretariat

Group 1:

• Facilitator: Mr Pablo Nunez, Director, Investor Relations, GIB
• Jury:    
  • Ms Giulia Macagno, European Investment Bank/Gap Fund
  • Mr Marcus Mayr, UN Habitat
  • Mr Arne Janssen, Cities Alliance
  • Mr Augustin Maria, World Bank/Gap Fund

• African project 1: Sustainable Kampala Entebbe Metro Rail, Mr Alex Kivumbi, Makindye Ssabagabo, Uganda
• African project 2: Coastal Adaptation Project or River Health Programme, Ms Shannon Moffett, Vuthela Local Economic Development Programme, KwaDukuza, South Africa
• Asian project 1: Waste to Energy Pandansari Market, Balikpapan, Mr Suryanto Kepala, Head of Environment Agency, Balikpapan, Indonesia
• Asian project 2: Green Urban Transportation, Ir. H. Budidaya, M. For, Sc., Regional Secretary, Jambi City, Indonesia

Group 2:

• Facilitator: Ms Justine Audrain, Deputy director of programs, FMDV
• Jury:   
  • Mr Serge Allou, UCLG/IMIF
  • Ms Susann Mende, CoM SSAIII/GIZ
  • Ms Sophie de Coninck, UNCDF/LoCAL
  • Mr Malte Lellmann, C40 Cities Finance Facility (CFF)

• African project 3: Restoration of Ecological Infrastructure to Enhance Water Security, Ms Rulien Volschenk, Senior Environmental Management Officer, Overberg District Municipality and Ms Carla Ackerman, Agulhas Biodiversity Initiative , South Africa
• African project 4: Improvement of solid waste management, Mr Edgar Chilanzi Mulwanda, Sustainability Specialist, Lusaka, Zambia
• Asian project 3: Transforming Hoi An into a Bicycle-Friendly City, Tran Thi Kieu Thanh Ha, Livable Cities Project Manager, HealthBridge, Hoi An, Vietnam
• Asian project 4: Waterways: Tangerang’s New Water-based Public Transportation System, Mr Sugihharto Achmad Bagdja, Head of Regional Development & Planning Agency, Tangerang, Indonesia

Wrap up and closing remarks: Ms Inga Beie, GIZ/FELICITY

Ensuring Strong Community Engagement in Solid Waste Management

June 26, 2020 | 09:00 CET

Waste generation is of central concern in urban areas, particularly because most waste ends up in landfills. Cities and regions, including regencies, play an important role in mitigating climate change. Learn how Bogor Regency, Indonesia is engaging the community in reducing the carbon footprint, turning waste into opportunities and improving environmental conditions.

Benefits of cities for higher ambition NDCs and post-COVID recovery

17 November 2020 | 15:00  CET

The main objective of the webinar was to discuss how Nationally Determind Contributions can be used by national and local government to drive sustainable urbanization in the post-Covid recovery. Integrating and coordinating national and local climate action will enable scaling up and accelerating action on climate change.

10 March 2020 | 9:30 – 11:00 CET

Worldwide exposure to outdoor air pollution causes 4.2 million deaths every year. Urban populations are particularly exposed to poor air quality due to high concentrations of air pollutants in cities from different sectors and geographical origins. To successfully address air pollution in cities, there is a need to shift towards more sustainable transport, energy supplies, and public space design and management. Cities are innovation hubs. They thus have a key role to play in improving air quality through the design, monitoring and implementation of air quality plans at local level. However, of course, national and international collaboration is also essential.

This webinar opens with an overview of the most common sources of air pollution in cities. It delves into examples from cities across global regions deploying solutions to guarantee safe air quality standards for their citizens.

Agenda

1. Welcome and introduction – Eugenia Mansutti, Covenant of Mayors
2. Presentation of the IUC programme – IUC Coordination Unit
3. Air quality in cities: sources and solutions – Fabio Monforti, Scientific Project Officer, Joint Research Centre, European Commission
   Traffic management solutions to improve air quality – Gabriel Voisin-Fradin, City of Métropole Grenoble-Alpes (France)
   The process of developing a “Clean Air Action Plan” in Surat (India) – Mr. Ajay Nagpure, Head, Air Quality, WRI, India
   Managing air quality – Seoul Metropolitan Government (South Korea)
4. Q&A session
5. Conclusions and wrap-up – Eugenia Mansutti, Covenant of Mayors

Moderator: Eugenia Mansutti, Covenant of Mayors

For more information, contact: support@iuc-europe.eu.

Click on this link to access all the webinars of the IUC Webinar Series

Smart Cities for Low Emission Development

26 February 2020 | 14:30 – 16:00 CET

The webinar aimed at showcasing how successful smart city solutions and practices support local governments in their journey to reduce their GHG emissions and how they can be replicated and transferred to other cities and contexts. For this purpose, the webinar explored how to link and align smart city strategies with sustainable energy and climate action processes and targets, and highlighted existing information and resource repositories for financing and implementation of smart city practices. After presentations from cities involved in successful EU smart city projects such as GrowSmarter and Ruggedised, an open discussion provided room for questions and debate about the challenges and opportunities that smart strategies bring for low carbon and climate resilient development in cities.

Agenda

1. Welcome and URBAN LEDS II EU Project Update (10 min) Alis-Daniela Torres (ICLEI Europe)
2. Smart City Initiatives and Success Stories in Europe (20min) Alis-Daniela Torres & Esben Pejstrup (ICLEI Europe) – View Presentation
3. EU SSC Lighthouse Cities – Successful practices (20 min) Mika Hakosalo (Smart Cities Site Manager, Stockholm) and Christine Downie (Project Officer- City Energy, Glasgow City Council) – View Stockholm GrowSmarter Presentation and Glasgow Presentation
4. URBAN LEDs Cities strategies on smart cities and low carbon development (20 min) Micheál Lyons (Climate Action Unit, Cork City Council) and Nicolaie Moldovan (City Manager, Municipality of Alba Iulia) – View Cork City Council Presentation and Alba Lulia Smart City Presentation
5. Open discussion Q&A (15 min)
6. AOB (5 min)

Thu, Jan 23, 2020 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM CET

While traditional forms of municipal finance retain their importance, the role of new financial instruments and the engagement of the private sector become vital. As experience shows, even when creditworthiness is not an issue, most of local and regional governments are either not aware or are afraid of using unconventional tools of financing. This third webinar of the IUC financial series aims to give an overview on innovative financing mechanisms, inviting city speakers to share their experience.

Click on this link to access all the webinars of the IUC Webinar Series

Nature Based Solutions in Cities

Tue, Feb 25, 2020 | 15:00 CET

Dealing with a changing climate and ongoing urbanization including loss of forest and natural land; there has been a further call for nature-based solutions in the development of urban areas. For achieving a healthy and livable city we need to consider a city that provides ecosystem services and a healthy natural environment, thereby offering a range of social, ecological and economic benefits. After all, as people we are part of urban ecosystem or “ecopolis”. This webinar discussed:

• The city in its natural landscape.
• What are nature-based solutions?
• Water-Sensitive urban design.
• Nature-Base Solution for developing climate resilient pathways.
• Applications in practice: case of Sao Paulo.

Brought to you by ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), under the United Nation’s Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) Initiative.

Combining Building Efficiency and District Energy for More Sustainable Cities: A SE4ALL Webinar

Webinar Agenda and Presentations:

1. Welcome and Introduction of SE4ALL Energy Efficiency Accelerators

– Maryke van Staden, Low Carbon Cities Program Manager, ICLEI World Secretariat
– Lily Riahi, Advisor on Sustainable Energy in Cities, Energy, Climate and Technology Branch, UNEP

2. The building efficiency and district energy relationship and opportunities for action in cities: Building Energy Accelerator and District Energy in Cities

– Ingo Wagner Ingo Wagner, Policy and Project Officer, Euroheat and Power

3. Warsaw’s building efficiency and district energy activities

– Leszek Drogosz, Director of Infrastructure Department, City of Warsaw, Poland
– Marcin Wróblewski, Infrastructure Department, City of Warsaw, Poland

4. Dubai’s building efficiency and district energy activities

– Samer Khoudeir, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer, Empower

Full System Accounting of Energy Efficiency in Buildings – A SE4ALL Webinar

Webinar held on November 3rd, 2015 at the ICLEI World Secretariat

Facilitator:

Maryke van Staden, Low Carbon Cities Program Manager and Director of the carbonn Center

Speakers:

– Lily Riahi, Advisor on Sustainable Energy in Cities, UNEP
– Shannon Lawrence, Director of Global Initiatives, C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group
– Eva Hoos, Policy Officer, DG Energy, European Commission
– Sean Pander, Green Building Manager, City of Vancouver
– Astrid Madsen, Sustainability Programme Advisor, City of Rotterdam

Solutions Gateway and Pool of Experts Webinar

Webinar held on 22nd of March, 2016, at the ICLEI World Secretariat.

Facilitator:

Ana Marques, Senior Officer, Low Carbon Cities
carbonn® Center – Bonn Center for Local Climate Action and Reporting, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability

Speakers:

Agathe Cavicchioli, Junior Officer, Low Carbon Cities, ICLEI
Chang Deng-Beck, Project Officer, Low Carbon Cities, ICLEI

Guest Speakers:

Session1: Lighea Speziale, Scientific and Technical Officer, Confederation of European Waste-to-Energy Plants
Session2: Gabriela Otero, Coordinator, Technical Department, ABRELPE

Green Bonds for Cities in the South Webinar

Webinar held on October 29th, 2015, at the ICLEI World Secretariat

Facilitator:

Chang Deng-Beck, Project Officer, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability

Speakers:

Padraig Oliver, Climate Policy Institute
Viola Lutz, South Pole Group / Carbon City Lab