Empowering Cities to Transform Climate Ideas into Action
GCoM and the Gap Fund serve as a bridge between local governments and climate finance opportunities.
In 2022, the City Climate Finance Gap Fund (Gap Fund) and the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCoM) joined forces to expedite cities’ climate progress. This partnership aims to enhance awareness of the Gap Fund as a crucial resource for local governments to receive technical assistance and accelerate the implementation of climate plans and actions. Through specialised events and targeted guidance, cities can transform their sustainable energy and climate action plans into project ideas ready to apply for the Gap Fund. The Global Covenant of Mayors leverages its expertise to support local governments in preparing strong and eligible applications for the fund.
To learn more about how GCoM is helping local governments access the Gap Fund and transform climate ideas into actionable plans, please contact info@gcomprojectsupport.org
Shaping the Future of Climate Action – Take Our Survey!
The Global Covenant of Mayors (GCoM) and the City Climate Finance Gap Fund invite you to participate in our survey on climate finance and project preparation. Your insights will shape the resources and support needed to accelerate urban climate action globally – we would love to hear from you!
What is the City Climate Finance Gap Fund?
The City Climate Finance Gap Fund (Gap Fund), launched in September 2020 supports cities in developing and emerging countries transitioning towards low-carbon and climate-resilient pathways by providing early-stage technical assistance. This assistance provides technical assistance to formulate city climate strategies, analyse key actions, promote improved coordination among key stakeholders, and support the preparation of projects from planning and strategy development to project concept and pre-feasibility stage.
Implemented by the World Bank (WB) and European Investment Bank (EIB), in partnership with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and an array of organisations, the Gap Fund helps bridge the urban financing gap to achieve low carbon, climate resilient urbanization.
GCoM helps by addressing local governments’ planning and project preparation challenges. By working directly with local governments representatives, GCoM is able to help cities better frame their ideas into Gap Fund expressions of interest, ultimately enhancing their ability to build finance-ready initiatives that drive effective climate action.
GCoM & The Gap Fund Partnership
GCoM raises awareness for cities, city networks and key stakeholders about the Gap Fund, its activities and the support available while promoting low-carbon, climate-resilient city development. The specialized team also supports city governments to identify and seek to overcome the challenges they face in evolving sustainable energy and climate action plans into projects.
Empowering Cities: The Gap Fund focuses on low- and middle-income countries, providing early-stage technical assistance to help cities in the development or expansion of climate plans, projects or policies. This early stage support is critical to turn resilient low-carbon ideas into strategies and finance-ready projects
Application process: GCoM provides expertise, helping local governments turn their climate ideas into strong and eligible expressions of interest for the Gap Fund. Through a series of outreach events and activities, GCoM team support cities to identify eligible project ideas ready to apply for the Gap Fund.
Streamlining Access to Finance: With a growing number of high-quality, viable climate-friendly urban projects, cities receiving support from the Gap Fund can access later-stage technical assistance for project preparation.
WHERE IS THE GAP FUND TEAM LOCATED?
PAST EVENTS
In 2023, the GCoM-Gap Fund Partnership supported and delivered more than 30 events, reaching more than 1200 people in over 500 cities worldwide. It also identified more than 100 project ideas.
GAP FUND UPDATES
March 24, 2025
The Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance (CCFLA) Central Asia Local Hub Forum, held from 18 to 19 February 2025 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, convened cities, technical experts, and development partners to strengthen collaboration on sustainable urban development, energy efficiency, and access to climate finance in the region. As an active contributor, the GCoM–Gap Fund Partnership supported … read more
March 17, 2025
In February 2025, as part of the Green and Resilient UrbanShift Africa Forum in Nairobi, Kenya, cities from across the continent gathered for an interactive session on local climate project preparation, hosted by the GCoM-Gap Fund Partnership, in collaboration with C40 Cities’ Cities Finance Facility (CFF). The session, organized in the margins of C40’s Investors … read more
March 11, 2025
A regional training workshop on Enhancing Climate and Disaster Risk Resilient Cities in Asia and the Pacific was held from 18–20 February 2025 in Bangkok, Thailand. Organized by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) under the Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR2030) initiative by the Asian Institute of Technology–Regional Resource Centre for Asia … read more
GAP FUND PARTNERS
