Mayors begin next phase of investment drive for cities

Plans to mobilise around US$6 billion of private capital for sustainable cities were unveiled this week by the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy at a high-level conference of the European Union.

The two initiatives—Invest4Cities and a Call for Interest—are aimed at getting public and private institutions to invest in cities around the world, where the current infrastructure financing gap stands at an estimated US$57 trillion, according to the McKinsey Global Institute.

"If we are serious about implementing the Paris Agreement, we also have to fill the green urban investment gap," Maroš Šefčovič, Vice President of the European Commission, told Cities Today.

Plugging the gap ...