Integration, Financing and Just Transition for Urban Sustainability
By Harriet Bulkeley, Carmen Lacambra, Aloke Barnwal, JJ Blackwatters, Mia Callenberg, Charlotte Demonsant, Anouk Fransen, Jihyeon Jeong, Fiona Kinniburgh, Jessica Lillquist, Sara Maia, Katrin Merfeld and Helen Toxopeus
Download- Year
- 2026
Purpose
This report seeks to provide new insights as to how cities engaged in the Sustainable Cities Programme (SCP) were advancing integrated approaches, access to finance and just transitions.
As one of few programmes globally that seeks to advance urban action on the interconnected challenges of climate, nature, pollution and sustainable development, the SCP provides the opportunity to build the evidence base on how these challenges can be addressed.
Together the collaborating research teams undertook systematic analysis of 29 GEF SCP project proposals using both manual and automated methods to identify trends in relation to how these issues were being addressed and changes over time in the issues and challenges in focus.
Context
With their significant concentration of people, infrastructure, investment and activity, cities are central to addressing the intertwined challenges facing humanity, nature and climate.
Over the past three decades, growing attention has been given to the role that cities can play in sustainable development, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, adapting to the risks of climate change, ameliorating the loss of biodiversity and addressing pollution. While many issues have been identified as critical in moving this agenda forward, three key issues have been particularly prominent:
- Enabling cities to take more integrated approaches that both tackle multiple issues in ways that allow co-benefits and synergies to be generated and which allow for greater coordination in contexts of multilevel governance
- Enhancing access to finance to support urban sustainable development
- Ensuring that policy, programmes and projects support just transitions so that communities are not unfairly disadvantaged or placed at risk, and that all actors undertake their common but differentiated responsibilities for addressing global challenges while guaranteeing that no-one is left behind in the move towards resilient, low carbon economies.
About this report
This report synthesizes the results of a research collaboration between the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Sustainable Cities Programme (SCP), the NATURESCAPES project.
The results of this research collaboration were presented at a workshop held with the British Academy in preparation for the launch of its next international policy programme on ‘Humanity, Climate and Nature’.