Matchmaker Service

Investment

Connecting cities and investors to scale up climate finance

Helping solve the climate financing gap

As cities transition to a low-carbon economic model, a finance gap of US$93 trillion will need to be closed over the next 15 years. The public sector alone is unable to raise these funds. A sizeable contribution must also come from institutional investors who are increasingly interested in climate projects.

Matchmaker aims to scale up financing by creating a one-stop-shop for data on urban climate initiatives. The unique service takes into account the needs of local government representatives as well as public and institutional investors when sourcing, structuring and financing deals.

The project is led by CDP and in consultation with SASA, ClimatePlace, Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative

Removing barriers to connect cities and investors

The Matchmaker service aims to overcome barriers to financing through the following initiatives:

Creating a market for data on early-stage urban mitigation projects
Improving education and communication to help cities prioritize climate projects and attract financing
Helping investors navigate the opportunities that local governments offer for climate mitigation
Exploring ways to aggregate smaller projects to reach significant scale, and promoting financing collaboration between the public and private sectors to minimize risks
Connecting to other initiatives, such as project preparation facilities, and giving these initiatives exposure to investors

Matchmaker Website

https://www.cdp.net/en/cities/matchmaker

CDP and ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability will work in partnership to actively connect cities and investors via the Matchmaker service, and design a business model that is effective, scalable and financially viable.

Projects will be selected based on responses from subnational governments to CDP’s climate disclosure platform for cities, along with applications submitted to the Transformative Action Program managed by ICLEI. Cities that disclose information on projects seeking financing will be contacted about participating in the Matchmaker service project.

We’re welcoming:

City representatives from:
- Sustainability department
- Finance department
- Economic department
Investors:
- National/regional/international public finance institutions
- Institutional investors
Organizations that help cities develop climate projects

Contact details

Kyra ApplebyHead of Cities CDP
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyra-appleby-ab3b85a/

Kyra joined the Cities team as an account manager in 2010 and was appointed program head in 2013. Prior, Kyra worked in research positions at NBC Universal, eMarketer and the City of New York. Kyra holds a Masters in Public Administration from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Earth Science from the Johns Hopkins University.

“At HSBC we see cities as key to delivering tangible action on climate change. Helping cities understand and develop structures that blend investment from private and public sources can improve their access to financing. We are currently working with a number of cities in the developing world to design strategies that can allow them to access investment from multilateral development banks, export credit agencies and dedicated environmental facilities such as the UN Green Climate Fund.”

HSBC Sustainable Finance, New York, USA.

Facts and figures

130 k tCO2

Estimated annual carbon savings per Matchmaker project: 130 k tCO2 (based on average of city-related CDM (clean development mechanism) projects such as landfill, urban transport and building projects)

277

277 projects disclosed to CDP that they are looking to attract private sector involvement in 720 climate change-related projects worth US$26 billion

US$19 billion

US$19 billion was spent on urban climate finance by the nine biggest development banks in 2015

120 applications

In 2015, local and regional governments across the globe submitted over 120 applications to the Transformative Actions Program (TAP). Of these, 84 were climate mitigation projects, requiring a total proposed budget of USD $6.42 billion.