Cities need to bridge the gap between their climate goals and capabilities

“Cities are leading the fight against climate change!” was a common refrain that was hard to miss in the run-up to COP28. Cities received unprecedented inclusion and recognition via the Local Climate Action Summit – but is this statement true?

When it comes to urban climate action, there is much to celebrate. Local governments across the world have developed robust climate action plans, and many cities have begun to deploy solutions in the energy, transportation, and building sectors that have the potential to significantly decrease emissions if scaled. However, despite this notable progress, cities are struggling to move from planning to implementation, and are not on track to meet their climate goals.

At its core, effective strategy depends on aligning aspirations with capabilities. It is abundantly clear that there is a chasm between the climate aspirations of local governments and their capabilities to deliver. However, this is not a call for local governments to scale back their climate ambitions – the problem is too urgent, and the consequences of inaction are too great. Rather, the mission of the Centre for Public Impact’s Climate Change Initiative is to collaborate with local governments and their partners to incubate new approaches and capabilities to urban climate action that can help cities meet the moment.

Core to our theory of impact is a belief that to address the complex, systemic challenges associated with climate mitigation and adaptation, cities need to take a systemic approach. This approach, characterized by a culture that incentivizes collaboration, experimentation, and iteration, starkly contrasts the dominant ways of working in government that are optimized for risk avoidance, control, and efficiency. We will not solve the climate challenge using business-as-usual approaches.

"The mission of the Centre for Public Impact’s Climate Change Initiative is to collaborate with local governments and their partners to incubate new approaches and capabilities to urban climate action that can help cities meet the moment."

Fortunately, a growing movement of innovative organizations and changemakers are supporting governments to apply a systems lens to climate challenges. For example: 

• EIT Climate-KIC, in partnership with other prominent organizations, recently announced the formation of the Systems Climate Action Collaborative, which aims to deploy $1B over ten years to fund urgent climate action.

• The TransCap Initiative is building the “systemic investing” field, which has profound implications for how cities source and deploy capital to address climate change. 

• The OECD is supporting governments in Europe to achieve their climate goals using a systems innovation methodology. 

• The World Resources Institute created the Systems Change Lab, which monitors, learns from, and mobilizes action toward the transformational shifts needed to protect people and the planet.

CPI is proud to be one of the organizations contributing to this movement. Over the past year, we have explored four opportunity areas critical to enabling a systemic approach to implementing climate action in cities. Here is what this can look like in practice:

In 2024, we will deepen this work by launching ambitious projects in collaboration with local governments and strategic partners. Please visit our website to read more about our projects and get in touch to discuss how we might partner together to build low carbon, resilient cities.