Submissions are still open for the City Climate Finance Gap Fund. The Gap Fund provides a range of technical assistance and capacity building to support climate-smart planning and investment in cities in developing and emerging countries.
The Gap Fund :
- Provides city planners with upstream technical assistance and tailor-made tools to enhance cities’ low-carbon planning and resilience efforts to address urban sprawling growth.
- Helps city leaders build a pipeline of high-quality, climate-smart urban investments, with a focus on early and often underfunded stages of project preparation.
- Facilitate the connection between cities and prospective financing partners, such as the World Bank or EIB lending, or third-party financiers.
- Leverage international collaboration and partnerships with the Global Covenant of Mayors and city networks to learn from each other and standardize approaches.
Eligible activities
- The Gap Fund will finance the following activities:
- Supporting city climate strategy development and the generation of in-depth analytics to assess the climate action and resilience potential of plans, strategies, and investment programs
- Providing capacity building for low-carbon capacity and climate-resilient urban development
- Supporting the prioritization of investments as part of a climate strategy or investment program
- Defining project concept definitions and the components of pre-feasibility studies
- Supporting a strengthened approach to project financing
- Matchmaking with additional support sources for later stages of project preparation
- Offering potential support to fill in other project preparation gaps
Eligibility Criteria
- The Expression of Interest must come from developing and emerging countries identified in the ODA-OECD DAC list.
- The Expression of Interest must aim to make an ambitious contribution to the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions to meet the 1.5˚ Celsius goal identified in the Paris Agreement and/or adaptation to climate change.
- Applicants must commit to carrying out an estimation of the proposal’s climate change mitigation or adaptation potential or working with Gap Fund experts to estimate it.
- The applicant must be a city or local government official or a third party that submits the proposal officially on behalf of the city or local government.
- The project must be situated in an urban area or functionally linked to one. Proposals presented by public or private developers with clear linkages to sub-national governments will be eligible, so long as a proposal’s urban dimension is clear and local political ownership is verified.
- The following urban infrastructure themes or sectors are eligible for Gap Fund support:
- Sustainable urban mobility
- Energy efficiency and small renewables, including building retrofits, street lighting, district heating and cooling
- Solid waste management and circular economy activities
- Water and wastewater management, including flood management
- Greening of urban areas, nature-based solutions, blue/green infrastructure, ecosystem restoration, and centered urban planning
- Green buildings, including sustainable/climate-friendly building materials and eco-districts
- Affordable housing with an energy-efficient approach.
Eligible countries
Afghanistan Angola Bangladesh Benin Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Central African Republic Chad Comoros Congo DR Djibouti Eritrea Ethiopia Gambia Guinea Guinea-Bissau Haiti Kiribati Laos Lesotho Liberia Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Mozambique Myanmar Nepal Niger Rwanda Sao Tome And Principe Senegal Sierra Leone Solomon Islands Somalia South Sudan Sudan Tanzania East Timor (Timor-Leste) Togo Tuvalu Uganda Yemen Zambia North Korea Syria Algeria Bhutan Bolivia Cape Verde Cameroon Congo (Brazzaville) Cote DIvoire (Ivory Coast) Egypt Eswatini Ghana Honduras India Iran Jordan Kenya Kyrgyzstan Lebanon Micronesia Federated States Of Mongolia Morocco Nicaragua Nigeria Pakistan Papua New Guinea Philippines Samoa Sri Lanka Tajikistan Tokelau Tunisia Ukraine Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vietnam Zimbabwe Albania Argentina Armenia Azerbaijan Belarus Belize Bosnia And Herzegovina Botswana Brazil China Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Dominican Republic Dominica Ecuador El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Fiji Gabon Georgia Grenada Guatemala Guyana Indonesia Iraq Jamaica Kazakhstan Kosovo Libya Malaysia Maldives Marshall Islands Mauritius Mexico Moldova Republic Of Montenegro Montserrat Namibia Nauru Niue Macedonia Palau Panama Paraguay Peru Saint Helena Saint Lucia Saint Vincent And The Grenadines Serbia South Africa Suriname Thailand Tonga Turkey Turkmenistan Venezuela Wallis And Futuna Palestinian Territories
Deadline: Ongoing
How to apply: Click HERE to apply.
The City Climate Finance Gap Fund is accepting submissions to provide technical assistance and capacity building for climate-smart planning and investment in emerging and developing cities.
The Gap Fund aids city planners and leaders in enhancing low-carbon planning, creating pipelines for climate-smart investments, and connecting cities with financial partners. Eligible activities funded include developing climate strategies, providing capacity building, investment prioritization, project conceptualization, and offering funds for various project preparation stages.
Eligibility criteria require submissions from countries listed in the ODA-OECD DAC, aiming to significantly mitigate greenhouse gas emissions or adapt to climate change.
Applications must come from city officials or third-parties on behalf of cities and must focus on urban areas or projects linked to them. Eligible sectors for support include sustainable mobility, energy efficiency, waste management, water management, urban greening, green buildings, and affordable housing with energy-efficient designs. The application deadline is ongoing, and interested parties can click the provided link to apply.
