Cities are a large source of planet-warming emissions. Now a group of mayors is urging global development banks to put more money toward urban climate programs.
The local officials say they often lead efforts to cut climate pollution — even when their national governments do not. The lack of action by their countries’ leaders can leave cities without access to international climate funding, they said.
“We have a lot of cities who have really great climate action plans,” said Mark Watts, executive director of C40 Cities, a coalition of nearly 100 major metropolises worldwide. “But their respective national governments do not support them. And therefore the banks cannot or won’t lend against them.”
Officials with C40 and the Global Covenant of Mayors, another climate leadership group, met with leaders from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Inter American Development Bank in Washington last week.
