As the first week of COP29 drew to a close with intense debates on climate financing and ambitious targets, and just days before the G20 Leaders’ Summit, another international forum turned Rio de Janeiro into the epicenter of discussions on urban issues. From November 14 to 17, the Urban20 (U20) summit gathered over 80 mayors and 100 city delegations from G20 nations to explore solutions and craft recommendations for national leaders meeting on November 18 and 19.
As one of the G20’s engagement groups since 2018, U20 congregates major G20 city leaders to elevate local and urban issues in the G20 discussions. Each year, ahead of the annual G20 summit, U20 creates a communiqué, “a written action-oriented document,” that presents the participating cities’ requests from and recommendations to national governments.
This year’s communiqué was delivered by Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, host of the G20 summit, on November 17. It called upon the G20 to recognize the unique role of local governments in addressing interconnected challenges such as poverty, sustainable development and climate action. And it stressed the need for empowering cities as active partners, with access to direct funding and decision-making authority, to tackle global issues effectively.
In the days leading up to the delivery of the communiqué, mayors gathered with civil society representatives, financiers, leaders and experts at the Armazém da Utopia, a warehouse in Rio’s port area, for a series of discussions around scaling up climate action financing, decarbonizing economies and promoting climate resilience in communities.
WRI Brasil organized two panels featuring government officials, financial institutions and international experts that explored some of these issues.
Unlocking Climate Finance for Cities
How can national governments and financial institutions unlock the flow of climate finance to cities? This key question that framed COP29 was also the topic of one of WRI Brasil’s panels Supported by the Rio de Janeiro city government, it brought together high-level stakeholders and experts, including Aloizio Mercadante, president of Brazil’s National Development Bank (BNDES), and Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation and one of the architects of the Paris Agreement, along with representatives from global funds and organizations.
Moderated by Henrique Evers, WRI Brasil’s urban development manager, the discussion emphasized the dual challenges of demand and supply in climate finance. While municipal capacity gaps often dominate discussions, the panel sought to shift the focus to the role of financial institutions in creating accessible, efficient mechanisms.
“Municipalities are not just beneficiaries; they are effective partners,” said Chitembo Kawimbe Chunga of Climate Investment Funds (CIF), who praised platforms like U20 for elevating urban voices. Tubiana highlighted the role of development banks in reducing risks for local governments, particularly through currency hedging.
Mercadante called for stronger accountability from wealthier nations and private sectors, noting the limitations of federal resources in addressing Brazil’s vast sustainable development needs. Despite recent federal efforts to expand funding, smaller municipalities remain underserved. To address this, Josué Tanaka from the Grantham Research Institute advocated for national platforms that pool resources and reduce obstacles, which would enable cities to access concessional financing with more favorable conditions.
These insights align with Brazil’s recently updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the Paris Agreement, one of the first to be submitted ahead of the 2025 deadline for all nations. The new NDC highlights multilevel governance and coordinated action as crucial for achieving Brazil’s ambitious climate goals. It also directly references the Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships (CHAMP) for Climate Action, which the country committed to at COP28.
Decarbonizing Freight Transport
At U20, WRI Brasil also brought together representatives from Brazil’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, the World Bank and WRI India to discuss the creation of a national platform aimed at decarbonizing freight transportation. While electric cars and urban buses have received policy support in Brazil’s energy transition, the freight transport sector has garnered comparatively little attention.
Decarbonizing freight is a strategic priority: It accounts for only 4% of the global transport fleet, but it generates 36% of the sector’s emissions. And as a fragmented sector, it requires coordinated action. “Bringing a multistakeholder platform together — with policymakers, financial institutions and manufacturers — will accelerate solutions tailored to the specificities of the Brazilian market,” said Cristina Albuquerque, director of global electric mobility at WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, who moderated the panel.
The new Brazilian platform would draw inspiration from e-FAST, a program led by the Indian government with support from WRI India, which is working to deploy 15,000 electric trucks over five years. Sharvari Patki, program head for electric mobility at WRI India, shared insights from the program, highlighting that the success of such initiatives hinges on building trust and creating a clear vision to sustain progress.
In addition to anticipating adoption of an e-FAST program, the Brazilian freight decarbonization platform would build on an existing collaboration between WRI Brasil and the country’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, which is mapping Brazil’s freight ecosystem to establish guidelines for national decarbonization policies. Slated for launch in 2025, the platform would institutionalize these efforts and further promote opportunities for multisectoral collaboration, pilot project implementation and the development of financial products.
The initiative received praise from participants, including Adalberto Maluf, Brazil’s Secretary of Urban and Environmental Quality, who described the platform as a potential game-changer that offers modeling tools and capacity-building to scale decarbonization efforts. Similarly, Bernardo Serra from the World Bank highlighted the platform’s potential role in bridging gaps in both current and future decarbonization initiatives.
A Shared Path Forward
These initiatives spotlighted at U20 reflect a commitment to addressing the climate crisis through collaborative action and innovative solutions, and WRI Brasil showcased the importance of integrating financing and energy transition strategies to advance urban sustainability. By fostering collaboration between government, financial institutions and civil society, these efforts align with the broader goals of the U20 and G20 and pave the way for cities to become catalysts for global climate action.
This update originally appeared on WRI.org.
Fernando Correa is Communications Specialist at WRI Brasil.
Luis Antonio (Toni) Lindau is Director of WRI Brasil Ross Center for Sustainable Cities.
