Adaptation is an avoided financial cost, and it is therefore harder to secure investment. To date, most investment in adaptation, is by public investment. However, public money alone cannot bridge the adaptation financing gap, the private sector must also become engaged. The viability of blending public and private finance, however, depends on the availability of government capital contributions to incentivise private engagement.

There are several barriers to solving this funding gap at both the government and project preparation level. Governments are hindered by internal budgetary limits, accountability and traceability, policy and regulatory environment, and access to capital markets amongst several other barriers. Project developers need to determine the value their activities bring in terms of revenue generating, value creation (i.e. increased house prices), and risk reduction. The nature of the barriers impacts the structure of the finance that can support overcoming them.

This workshop will explore how local governments can design and better utilise the resources available to overcome these barriers and make adaptation projects more ‘bankable’ to leverage private sector investments.

This session is part of the Enabling the transformation to resilient, adaptive and climate-neutral cities stream.