The European Commission is setting up a new Climate City Capital Hub, an international finance resource to support cities participating in the EU Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities.
With this hub, the cities having EU Cities Mission Label will be able to access financial advice in cooperation with advisory services of the European Investment Bank (EIB), structure their financial needs to understand various ways of funding projects and introduce projects to a range of capital providers, including lenders and investors from the public and private sectors.
The Climate City Capital Hub will be created with the support of both the EU Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission and the EU Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change, with a focus on engagement with private capital. For cities that signed both the Charter of the Mission on Climate Adaptation and have received the EU Cities Mission Label, the services will cover both mitigation and adaptation projects, taking a holistic approach to tackling climate change.
The hub will be run by the Commission’s Cities Mission implementation platform, which is currently managed by the project NetZeroCities.
Under this the EIB has also earmarked a lending envelope of €2 billion dedicated to cities with the Cities Mission Label to support their plans to invest in energy, efficient buildings, district heating systems, renewable energy, sustainable mobility, urban renewal and regeneration, water and social infrastructure.