The Speed and Scale: Shaping a Successful Financial Program for Climate Solutions in European Cities workshop at SCEWC 2024 brought together a distinguished panel of smart city experts to address the pressing issues of business models and financing that would help speed up the replication and scaling up of innovative solutions in Europe.
The workshop was facilitated by Graham Colclough of UrbanDNA, Emilio Miguel Mitre of Urban Climate Economy and MAKING-CITY, Mikael Edelstam of Miljöstrategi AB, Gretel Schaj of BABEL, and Philipp Fournand of Blue-Sight Conseil and Veronika Cerna from the Scalable Cities Secretariat and Twenty Communications. Together with financial experts, investors, VCs and city representatives, they discussed the possibility of creating a City Investment Fund aimed at accelerating the scaling of sustainable urban solutions to meet climate targets for 2030 and 2050.
Participants actively discussed the various aspects and needs of the stakeholders in the creation of such a programme: including the creation of an adapted financial framework, the need to empower cities and a push for a collective action that would bring together cities, businesses and investors.
Philippe Fournand opened the session by highlighting the critical importance of aligning cities, financial markets, and industry to create a solid foundation in order to achieve the 2030 and 2050 climate targets. "We need cities, capital, and robust business models to make this work," setting the basis for the discussions on how to scale climate solutions effectively. From there, several key challenges and solutions were discussed, one topic was the need for standardised financial frameworks. Peter Kisch from the city of Lund, highlighted the importance of a common financial market and asset class to help streamline investments for climate projects across Europe, noting that scaling financial solutions across different regulatory contexts can be challenging. Financial solutions, therefore, must be adapted to local contexts.
Another critical point raised was the importance of empowering cities to become proactive incubators of sustainable investments. Gretel Schaj stated that "Cities need the right capacity, mindset, and organisation to make climate solutions a priority on their agenda." Cities often lack the resources necessary to prepare projects sufficiently for financing. María Belén Ortíz Torres from Bankers without Boundaries pointed out that climate investment teams are essential to make sure that cities have concrete projects and financial models developed when they are seeking funding, while Erika Lewis, CEO Connected Places Catapult spoke about the skills gap noting that cities need to develop better project design skills to be able to craft projects that will meet needs and ultimately reduce energy use effectively.
While challenges remain, the workshop showcased a growing consensus on the necessity of developing a pan-European Fund, positioning cities as key recipients of sustainable investments. The collaboration between cities, investors, and industry leaders is now more critical than ever, and it is clear that collective action will be the key to overcoming barriers and achieving the ambitious goals set for climate-neutral cities.