City leaders from lower-income countries have long pushed for direct access to financing from multilateral development banks rather than going through their national governments.
Central governments tend to get the loans because they usually have the resources to guarantee payback. But city leaders say that creates barriers to their access.
Cities have grown rapidly over the last decade. In 2007, the number of people in urban settings overtook those living in rural areas. Those figures have only grown since then, with more than half of the world’s population now living in cities. This means that cities are responsible for 75% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions — yet only about 7%-8% of climate finance money from MDBs gets channeled to cities.