Cities are the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Although they occupy only 2% of the world’s land area, they account for over 70% of emissions, according to the World Bank. Africa is becoming more urbanised, with younger populations increasingly moving from rural areas to cities to find work. As cities grow, new settlements are often built on land that is particularly vulnerable to climate risks, increasing the need for urban areas to be better adapted to climate change. Through donor support, technical assistance, and targeted finance of at least €100m ($122m), the fund plans to unlock an estimated €4bn to help cities transform climate ambitions into finance-ready projects. Germany intends to invest around €40m and Luxembourg up to €10m. Many project preparation facilities support urban climate projects when they are in the advanced stages. The Gap Fund helps cities much earlier in the process. To overcome cities’ inexperience and lack of knowledge, the Gap Fund provides technical assistance that moves project ideas to more advanced planning stages and thus facilitates their implementation.
Cities and local authorities are able to apply for Gap Fund support by submitting an expression of interest, and those with successful applications will receive technical assistance from the EIB or the World Bank. The first round of technical assistance grants for nine cities were approved in early April, amounting to $1.8m in total. The selected African cities include Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC); Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; and Fez, Morocco. All of the three African pilot cities are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Over the last 50 years, droughts have intensified in Morocco’s arid climate, which houses thousands of square miles of the Sahara Desert. Since the beginning of the 1980s, recurrent droughts have impacted the hinterland of the northeast city of Fez. Kinshasa faces an entirely separate list of challenges. The capital city lies on the banks of the Congo River, which floods regularly during heavy equatorial rain. The city is heavily exposed to flooding and erosion, with landslides regularly claiming lives – one in November 2019 killed at least 40 people and displaced thousands more. The World Bank has recently presented a new 2025 climate action plan which significantly increases the institution’s climate finance targets. Cities will play an important role, and the Gap Fund is one of the initiatives expected to contribute in achieving these increased targets.