With the recently adjourned COP29 being termed the ‘Finance COP’, climate finance as a climate action enabler has never held more of a global spotlight. COP member states cited that to successfully address the climate emergency and make climate resilience and a Just Transition a reality, climate finance will need to be significantly scaled up and leveraged. It is against this backdrop that OneWorld Sustainable Investments in partnership with C40 Cities, and the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) delivered the Capacity Building on Climate Change Financing training on 12th and 15th November 2024.
The two-day training aimed to equip municipal officials with knowledge and skills around climate finance and how it can be used to support the City’s Climate Action Plan (CAP), resilience-building, and sustainable development initiatives. The training agenda included sessions that introduced climate finance, guided on climate finance integration into urban planning, and identified climate finance sources. Participants also had an opportunity to share their previous experiences of accessing and implementing climate finance.
The training materials were tailored to the City’s capacity requirements and were based on inputs from stakeholders across several of the City’s departments/entities. The training content included international best practice examples and case studies which drew on some of OneWorld’s previous work in mobilising climate finance at a municipal level, including in CoJ.
The training outcomes were extremely positive, with CoJ officials maintaining active engagement throughout the sessions and demonstrating personal commitment and ownership in mainstreaming climate finance into the City’s budgets, programmes, and processes. In the post training evaluation, participants expressed that the training was “empowering” and “informative,” and that they wanted “more sessions”. In particular, officials benefitted from the rare opportunity to foster internal collaboration and share knowledge and experiences, temporarily breaking down the silos which often hinder tangible climate action and governance.
“Thank you for the opportunity to allow local government to be proactive instead of […] reactive to situations,” commented one participant.
Officials were particularly receptive to improving their knowledge of climate finance instruments and mechanisms, such as green bonds, public-private partnerships (PPPs), and blended finance, including how to leverage concessional finance for private investment.
“Thank you for the opportunity to allow local government to be proactive instead of […] reactive to situations,” commented one participant, with several others requesting similar training and follow-up engagements tailored to the needs and mandates of their respective departments/entities.
Several participants pledged to represent their departments/entities in a Climate Finance Steering Committee which will be established as a result of the training. It is evident that the City of Joburg has climate champions, ready, willing, and capable of taking up the climate finance charge.
