As local weather finance efforts develop in ambition and scope, there’s rising recognition of the vital function that cities and subnational governments should play in attaining nationwide local weather objectives. The Cities Local weather Finance Management Alliance (CCFLA) and SDSN International Fee for City SDG Finance convened a session throughout the 2025 World Financial institution/IMF Spring Conferences in Washington DC to discover how nation platforms – rising as central instruments for scaling local weather finance – can extra successfully combine city priorities. The occasion additionally marked the launch of a joint paper by CCFLA and the SDSN International Fee, developed with enter from the Asian Infrastructure Funding Financial institution (AIIB), which presents a framework for urban-inclusive nation platforms.
THE ROLE OF COUNTRY PLATFORMS IN SCALING CLIMATE FINANCE
Nation platforms are designed to mobilize local weather finance at scale by coordinating nationwide growth methods, worldwide funding, and donor engagement beneath a unified, country-led method. Nonetheless, lots of the present platforms presently fall brief in addressing the city dimension of the local weather transition and/or embrace subnational governments within the strategy of designing the platforms. Cities are answerable for over 70% of world emissions and require trillions in funding to fulfill their local weather targets – due to this fact city local weather investments should be leveraged at scale to attain transformative change.
As discussions on reforming Multilateral Growth Banks (MDBs) and advancing nation platform design progress, a vital query arises: how can these mechanisms be tailored to raised mirror city realities, empower subnational actors, and catalyze city-led local weather motion?
TOWARD URBAN-INCLUSIVE COUNTRY PLATFORMS
The brand new paper launched throughout the Spring Conferences provides a transparent imaginative and prescient for integrating subnational governments and concrete agendas into nation platforms. It proposes a sensible framework to assist policymakers establish entry factors for extra sturdy city engagement, from coverage design to implementation. The framework offers present and rising nation platforms with a sequential motion pathway from preliminary subnational engagement to implementation. It describes the stage, working function and indicators of profitable city integration.
The session’s dialogue helped contextualize this framework inside real-world experiences, producing sensible insights for making use of the method throughout various nation contexts.
KEY THEMES FROM THE DISCUSSION
- Evolving Nature of Nation Platforms
Initially conceived to assist monetary stability and harmonized useful resource mobilization, nation platforms are evolving. They’re meant to be country-owned, politically anchored, and aligned with nationwide growth objectives. Whereas curiosity in establishing such platforms is rising, just a few international locations have moved into energetic implementation. The following technology of platforms might differ considerably in construction and focus, requiring tailor-made approaches. - Strengthening Governance and Fiscal Coordination
Efficient nation platforms rely upon robust governance throughout all ranges. This implies aligning nationwide, regional, and native insurance policies and establishing fiscal coherence. Involving Treasury ministries early within the course of can be certain that local weather finance methods are embedded inside nationwide budgeting techniques and aligned with long-term public funding plans. - Tackling Challenges to City Integration
City integration faces persistent challenges, together with fragmented native priorities, restricted fiscal decentralization, and constrained municipal capability. Many cities, particularly smaller ones, lack the power to handle monetary danger or independently entry challenge preparation assist and local weather finance. With out mechanisms to deal with these gaps, cities might stay sidelined. - Increasing Subnational Engagement
Subnational participation in nation platforms can take a number of kinds: from primary session to platforms with express city mandates, or sectoral platforms with city relevance, equivalent to adaptation or transport. The paper outlines how these fashions will be tailored to every nation’s political, fiscal, and urbanization panorama. Moreover, partnerships with Public Growth Banks can assist unlock finance for subnational tasks. - Strengthening Integration by means of Coverage and Apply
Deeper coverage alignment is required to acknowledge the function of cities in delivering nationwide local weather aims. Nation platforms may additionally deal with fiscal decentralization head-on – clarifying roles, tasks, and monetary autonomy on the subnational degree. Past coordination, platforms can function instruments for constructing capability, fostering collaboration, and guaranteeing that city areas are key engines of mitigation and resilience
MOVING FORWARD
Trying forward, the paper encourages additional exploration of how nation platforms can evolve in step with altering city dynamics. This contains avoiding unsustainable growth fashions like suburban sprawl, enabling bigger cities to faucet worldwide capital markets, and empowering smaller municipalities to interact meaningfully. The proposed framework provides flexibility, permitting international locations to find out their very own tempo and depth of city integration – from session to full co-ownership.
City-inclusive nation platforms maintain immense potential for aligning native innovation with nationwide ambition. By embedding subnational priorities into country-led methods, these platforms can turn into more practical, equitable, and able to mobilizing the local weather finance wanted to fulfill the dimensions of the problem. As world efforts to reform local weather finance structure proceed, a sharper concentrate on cities and multi-level governance can be vital to driving transformative change.
As local weather finance efforts develop in ambition and scope, there’s rising recognition of the vital function that cities and subnational governments should play in attaining nationwide local weather objectives. The Cities Local weather Finance Management Alliance (CCFLA) and SDSN International Fee for City SDG Finance convened a session throughout the 2025 World Financial institution/IMF Spring Conferences in Washington DC to discover how nation platforms – rising as central instruments for scaling local weather finance – can extra successfully combine city priorities. The occasion additionally marked the launch of a joint paper by CCFLA and the SDSN International Fee, developed with enter from the Asian Infrastructure Funding Financial institution (AIIB), which presents a framework for urban-inclusive nation platforms.
THE ROLE OF COUNTRY PLATFORMS IN SCALING CLIMATE FINANCE
Nation platforms are designed to mobilize local weather finance at scale by coordinating nationwide growth methods, worldwide funding, and donor engagement beneath a unified, country-led method. Nonetheless, lots of the present platforms presently fall brief in addressing the city dimension of the local weather transition and/or embrace subnational governments within the strategy of designing the platforms. Cities are answerable for over 70% of world emissions and require trillions in funding to fulfill their local weather targets – due to this fact city local weather investments should be leveraged at scale to attain transformative change.
As discussions on reforming Multilateral Growth Banks (MDBs) and advancing nation platform design progress, a vital query arises: how can these mechanisms be tailored to raised mirror city realities, empower subnational actors, and catalyze city-led local weather motion?
TOWARD URBAN-INCLUSIVE COUNTRY PLATFORMS
The brand new paper launched throughout the Spring Conferences provides a transparent imaginative and prescient for integrating subnational governments and concrete agendas into nation platforms. It proposes a sensible framework to assist policymakers establish entry factors for extra sturdy city engagement, from coverage design to implementation. The framework offers present and rising nation platforms with a sequential motion pathway from preliminary subnational engagement to implementation. It describes the stage, working function and indicators of profitable city integration.
The session’s dialogue helped contextualize this framework inside real-world experiences, producing sensible insights for making use of the method throughout various nation contexts.
KEY THEMES FROM THE DISCUSSION
- Evolving Nature of Nation Platforms
Initially conceived to assist monetary stability and harmonized useful resource mobilization, nation platforms are evolving. They’re meant to be country-owned, politically anchored, and aligned with nationwide growth objectives. Whereas curiosity in establishing such platforms is rising, just a few international locations have moved into energetic implementation. The following technology of platforms might differ considerably in construction and focus, requiring tailor-made approaches. - Strengthening Governance and Fiscal Coordination
Efficient nation platforms rely upon robust governance throughout all ranges. This implies aligning nationwide, regional, and native insurance policies and establishing fiscal coherence. Involving Treasury ministries early within the course of can be certain that local weather finance methods are embedded inside nationwide budgeting techniques and aligned with long-term public funding plans. - Tackling Challenges to City Integration
City integration faces persistent challenges, together with fragmented native priorities, restricted fiscal decentralization, and constrained municipal capability. Many cities, particularly smaller ones, lack the power to handle monetary danger or independently entry challenge preparation assist and local weather finance. With out mechanisms to deal with these gaps, cities might stay sidelined. - Increasing Subnational Engagement
Subnational participation in nation platforms can take a number of kinds: from primary session to platforms with express city mandates, or sectoral platforms with city relevance, equivalent to adaptation or transport. The paper outlines how these fashions will be tailored to every nation’s political, fiscal, and urbanization panorama. Moreover, partnerships with Public Growth Banks can assist unlock finance for subnational tasks. - Strengthening Integration by means of Coverage and Apply
Deeper coverage alignment is required to acknowledge the function of cities in delivering nationwide local weather aims. Nation platforms may additionally deal with fiscal decentralization head-on – clarifying roles, tasks, and monetary autonomy on the subnational degree. Past coordination, platforms can function instruments for constructing capability, fostering collaboration, and guaranteeing that city areas are key engines of mitigation and resilience
MOVING FORWARD
Trying forward, the paper encourages additional exploration of how nation platforms can evolve in step with altering city dynamics. This contains avoiding unsustainable growth fashions like suburban sprawl, enabling bigger cities to faucet worldwide capital markets, and empowering smaller municipalities to interact meaningfully. The proposed framework provides flexibility, permitting international locations to find out their very own tempo and depth of city integration – from session to full co-ownership.
City-inclusive nation platforms maintain immense potential for aligning native innovation with nationwide ambition. By embedding subnational priorities into country-led methods, these platforms can turn into more practical, equitable, and able to mobilizing the local weather finance wanted to fulfill the dimensions of the problem. As world efforts to reform local weather finance structure proceed, a sharper concentrate on cities and multi-level governance can be vital to driving transformative change.
