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We first consider how ‘climate budgeting’ tools can help public finance to integrate climate adaptation spending with development spending. Our second piece deals with a common barrier preventing project proponents from accessing international climate finance, and makes the case for developing concept notes.

This week, we return to our series on climate finance challenges in Africa and discuss some of the challenges associated with prioritising climate change interventions in the context of political-economy realities that can sometimes undermine evidence-based decision making.

To continue our discussion on sustainability transitions in cities, this week we look at how and whether models of community-based action – and community-based networks – could help to build resilience in municipalities, in moving towards post-COVID-19 recovery.

COVID-19 has put cities – and their sustainability transitions - in the spotlight as they struggle to respond to the multi-scale challenges of the crisis. We are currently engaging with officials from nine South African cities with ICLEI Africa for the South African Cities Network.

Awareness levels of climate funding opportunities are very low. This week, in our series on barriers to accessing climate finance, we share how the wide range of financial options for climate action are often invisible to project developers – especially for small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs).

Discussing the complex but critical interconnections between the different types of climate response actions (adaptation and mitigation) and the implications for attracting climate finance.

Considering the work we did last year on the Just Transition in South Africa, and link this to the mining sector, in terms of its vulnerability to climate change and its role in the Just Transition. Followed by some insights from our project on the benefits of digitally enabled learning and engagements – a trend which has been greatly accelerated by the current pandemic

This week, in our ongoing series on confronting the barriers to climate finance in Africa, we discuss how to address the challenges of meeting complex funding criteria. Navigating this issue continues to remind us that building resilience – which is a more socially relevant way of looking at mitigating risk – is a universal concept

Last week’s newsletter (here) identified seven challenges involved in accessing climate finance, and over the next few weeks we will examine each of these in more depth. This week, we have looked at the importance – and value – of investing in the type of capacity development that will support project and proposal development. This week we are also launching a project that will investigate the sustainability indicators in South African cities – a critical aspect for recovering from the impacts of COVID-19.