Globally, capital for climate-resilient urban infrastructure is abundant, but many cities lack the portfolio discipline, fiscal fundamentals and project preparation needed to turn resilient infrastructure priorities into investable pipelines of work. By sequencing investments across infrastructure systems and places, and aligning them with clear funding and financing pathways, ‘portfolio approaches’ enable cities to stabilise revenues, protect asset values, and develop pipelines that are more legible to funders and investors.
The benefits of the portfolio approach:
- Cities can sequence investments to reduce risk and avoid higher lifecycle and reactive costs
- Cities can combine grants, concessional and commercial finance in a more structured way across programmes
- Cities can stabilise assets, service performance and municipal revenues over time
- Cities in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs) – that receive only around 11% of global urban climate finance – can increase the resilience they need to develop
- City leadership gains increased confidence in delivery – Cape Town’s experience with portfolio approaches led to 80% of projects delivered to scope, time and cost
Learning from global pioneers
Our work takes as its premise that portfolio approaches are a governance and delivery strategy, not a financing solution, recognising that for any city, success ultimately depends on underlying funding, institutional capacity and the way projects are planned and developed. In our report we explore the varied way that cities like Cape Town, Belgrade, New York, Chisinau and Shenzen have implemented the portfolio approach to achieve vital and enduring resilience outcomes for their populations.
