Local Climate Projects that Just Won C40 Funding — and What Cities Will Do Next
Rio de Janeiro’s World Mayors Summit this week saw a quiet but powerful bet on practical change: four major cities — Belo Horizonte and São Paulo in Brazil, Rabat in Morocco, and Cartagena in Colombia — will receive support from the C40 Cities Finance Facility (CFF) to prepare and deliver climate projects that aim to protect people and unlock finance. According to C40 Cities, the projects include nature-based watershed repair in Belo Horizonte, riverside regeneration in São Paulo, a solar-assisted electric bus line in Rabat, and a low-emission passenger ferry network in Cartagena.
These are not pie-in-the-sky pilots. C40 and its implementing partner GIZ describe the CFF as a project-preparation facility that helps cities make their plans bankable and equitable so they can attract large investments. A report by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) found the CFF’s approach increases the chances that city projects become investible and deliver measurable social benefits.
Here are the core facts about the new projects as announced by C40: Belo Horizonte will use green corridors, rain gardens and rooftop water harvesters to reduce flooding and heat risks in vulnerable basins; São Paulo will expand nature-based regeneration along the Billings Reservoir to improve water security and create green jobs; Rabat will operate 30 e-buses fed in part by rooftop solar at depots; and Cartagena will replace old diesel boats with 10 low-emission ferries and new docks integrated into its Transcaribe system. These projects are explicitly designed to improve equity, reduce emissions, and increase resilience for people who currently bear the brunt of climate shocks.
Why These Projects Matter: Science and People
The technical idea behind the Brazilian projects — invest in green and blue infrastructure — is supported by a growing scientific consensus. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), urban green and blue infrastructure (parks, wetlands, restored rivers) reduces heat stress, improves air quality, and helps manage storm water — serving both mitigation and adaptation goals.
A 2024 OECD review of nature-based flood management also found NbS (nature-based solutions) can be a cost-effective complement to engineered flood defences, especially where they protect densely populated or informal neighbourhoods — precisely the communities CFF projects target. A report by OECD found that NbS bring combined environmental, social and fiscal benefits when they are properly planned and maintained.
Electric public transport and marine electrification deliver similarly clear co-benefits. Multiple studies show that replacing diesel buses and boats with electric alternatives cuts local air pollution sharply (reducing NOx and fine particles) and lowers greenhouse-gas emissions when charging is paired with cleaner electricity or on-site renewables. According to a 2024 scoping review, electrifying vehicle fleets tends to produce net health benefits, particularly where pollution reductions reach dense, low-income neighbourhoods.
A life-cycle study of electric ferries published in 2025 reported reductions in climate impacts of up to 90% compared with gas-oil vessels in some scenarios, though results depend on battery choice and grid emissions.
The human side of this strategy is easy to see. In Belo Horizonte and parts of São Paulo, communities living on flood-prone riverbanks and basin edges already face repeated displacement, damaged homes, and health risks from contaminated water. In Cartagena, many island and coastal residents rely on informal, dangerous boat services to reach jobs and services. The CFF announcement includes first-hand mayoral testimony about those lived realities: Álvaro Damião, Mayor of Belo Horizonte, framed the watershed work as protection for the city’s most vulnerable residents; Dumek Turbay, Mayor of Cartagena, called the ferry network “a historic step” toward connecting island communities to essential services. According to the C40 Cities report, these are the voices guiding the projects’ design.
Real-World Results and Lessons from Past CFF Projects
CFF is not new. Launched in 2015, it has helped cities from Mumbai to Medellín and Durban to Dakar prepare projects in climate-critical sectors. According to C40 CFF, the facility has supported dozens of projects and aims to leverage over €1 billion in capital investment by 2030.
What has worked before gives us useful guideposts. In Durban, CFF-backed work to develop a business case for river corridor management focused not only on engineering, but on jobs, public safety, and long-term maintenance plans for the new green spaces. That emphasis on a clear business case and cross-department coordination is still central to CFF’s model and a key reason multiple projects have moved from plan to procurement. A CFF guide based on Durban’s experience stressed that a viable business case must quantify social and economic co-benefits — not only flood control — to attract mixed public and private finance.
Medellín’s Parques del Río initiative — another CFF partnership — shows how nature-based river rehabilitation can protect low-income neighbourhoods while creating park space used by hundreds of thousands of residents. Project documents report measurable decreases in flood risk for the targeted catchments and improved access to green space for nearly 400,000 people in the north of the city. A report on that project highlights the importance of community participation and phased delivery to manage costs and social impact.
There are hard lessons, too. Nature-based measures work best when cities pair them with governance changes (clear land tenure, maintenance budgets, inclusive planning) and when financing strategies recognise ongoing upkeep as much as capital costs. The OECD report in 2024 warned that NbS will underperform if maintenance and institutional responsibilities are not settled before construction.
For electric mobility, the experience from Shenzhen and other cities is instructive: deploying e-buses at scale requires depot retrofits, grid planning, driver and technician training, and contractual models that protect service quality while ensuring operators can afford the new assets. The CFF knowledge library includes an operational “How to electrify a bus depot” guide that many cities use to avoid common pitfalls. According to the World Bank and CFF guidance, pairing e-buses with on-site renewables (solar PV on depots) lowers lifetime costs and shields operating budgets from fuel price shocks.
Below is a compact table summarising the new awards and the metrics C40 released. (Numbers are taken from C40’s announcement and CFF project pages.)
| City | Project | Headline numbers | Expected near-term benefit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Belo Horizonte | Resilient urban watersheds (Capão & Piratininga) | Nature-based corridors, rain gardens, rooftop harvesting; target: cut flooding impacts by ~40% | Reduced flood damage, lower heat risks, biodiversity and public-health gains. |
| São Paulo | Jardim Orion II (Billings Reservoir regeneration) | Nature-based urban regeneration integrated into Watershed Protection Programme | Improved water security, flood risk reduction, green jobs. |
| Rabat | Solar-powered e-bus express line | 30 e-buses; rooftop PV at up to 3 depots | Lower tailpipe pollution, quieter streets, operational cost savings with solar. |
| Cartagena | Clean passenger ferry network | 10 new ferries + 10 docks; integrated with Transcaribe | Shorter commutes, safer marine travel, big drop in boat emissions. |
What Cities Will (and Should) Do Next — Practical Steps for Success
Winning technical support is only the start. To turn planning assistance into faster, fairer delivery, cities should treat four practical priorities as non-negotiable.
First, make the business case explicit and inclusive. That means quantifying avoided damages, health gains, job creation, and ecosystem services, not just counting capital costs. Durban’s business-case work shows that financiers respond to quantified co-benefits; a project that demonstrably reduces flood claims or improves commuter access will find more buyers. The CFF guidance note, based on Durban’s experience, recommended cross-departmental teams and value capture options to build resilient finance that lasts.
Second, plan for long-term maintenance from day one. Nature-based and transport projects carry upkeep burdens that are easy to underestimate. The OECD’s 2024 review of NbS underlined maintenance and governance as repeat failure points; in practice, simple actions — dedicated maintenance lines in city budgets, community stewardship programmes, private-sector service contracts — close that gap.
Third, pair technology with local skills and jobs. Electrifying buses or launching clean ferries should create local employment in depot retrofitting, battery servicing, and solar installation. C40’s project pages and project guides consistently recommend apprenticeship-style training tied to procurement contracts, so new infrastructure also builds local capacity. According to C40 CFF materials, 2023–2025, coupling procurement with local workforce development multiplies social returns.
Fourth, centre equity and community voice at every stage. The projects announced explicitly aim to serve vulnerable groups — island residents in Cartagena, neighbourhoods in Belo Horizonte and São Paulo. Evidence from Medellín and other CFF projects shows that early, well-resourced community engagement reduces conflict, speeds land agreements, and produces designs people will actually use. The report by C40 and partner cities in 2023–2025 documented how phased delivery and listening sessions changed designs to protect livelihoods while improving resilience.
Finally, measure and publish outcomes. Donors and financiers increasingly ask for rigorous monitoring: flood-damage avoided, emissions reduced, travel time cut, jobs created. Transparent metrics let cities prove impact, attract follow-on finance, and spread what works. IPCC guidance and OECD reviews stress that monitoring and iterative learning are central to scaling successful urban climate solutions. The 2023 report by IPCC suggests that systematic monitoring supports both accountability and adaptive management.
These new CFF awards are small steps compared with the scale of the climate challenge, yet they follow a pragmatic pattern: pick interventions that help vulnerable people today, structure projects so they are financeable, design for maintenance and local jobs, and measure results so donors and markets can scale success. If Belo Horizonte’s rain gardens withstand the next big storm without displacing residents, if São Paulo’s river work reduces emergency repairs, if Rabat’s buses prove reliable and Cartagena’s ferries cut commute times — those will be concrete wins for people’s safety and for the case that smart city projects can attract big capital.
