Belém, Brazil. Despite growing recognition of their importance in the climate transition, cities remain underserved by public and multilateral finance. The Viability Fund for Cities, launched by Viable Cities, seeks to change that by channelling global investment toward critical local climate action. This initial launch sets the stage for extensive collaboration in 2026 to co-create the fund’s next phase.
The Viability Fund for Cities is a new catalytic financing mechanism spearheaded by Viable Cities to scale transformative climate action in cities worldwide. The fund combines public funding, private capital, philanthropic and donor contributions to de-risk investments through pilots and system demonstrators, enabling large-scale, groundbreaking climate action in cities worldwide.
According to the Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance, cities need more than USD 4 trillion annually through 2030 for climate mitigation alone. Urban financing gaps also extend to resilience, affordable housing and many other important issues. At the same time, hundreds of organisations and initiatives run finance programs that could be directed towards cities.
With the Viability Fund for Cities, we invite the world’s leading financial institutions as well as local, regional and national governments, to align with us on programmes and to jointly develop game-changing mechanisms for urban finance, says Olle Dierks, Head of Large-Scale Investments at Viable Cities.
The first step in programme alignment is the development of a System Demonstrator Grant Call. From January to March 2026, funders are invited to join the co-design of the call, drawing on experiences from system demonstrators in Europe, Latin America, and Africa. The aim is to create a shared practical framework that funders can adapt and apply in their own contexts to support future system demonstrator initiatives.
Beyond aligning programmes, the initiative also aims to invite funders to co-finance game-changing initiatives with high-potential for impact on climate, with strong business cases and engagement from cities worldwide. The Viability Fund for cities enables a variety of stakeholders to blend investments in climate action. One example is the scaling of EnergyNet – a new protocol for local energy distribution developed by ViaEuropa within the City of Lund’s system demonstrator in Sweden.
In 2026, new alignment and investment opportunities within affordable housing, sustainable materials and urban mobility will also be explored through an advisory group.
Once fully up and running, the ambition is for the Viability Fund for Cities to work with system demonstrators as a mechanism for de-risking investments and procurement in cities, and to provide the finance to accelerate the full scaling of climate action in cities.
Contact: info@viabilityfund.org
Read more
- Viability Fund for Cities
- Alignment Opportunity: System Demonstrator Grant Call
- Co-Finance Opportunity: EnergyNet – Local Resilient Energy Distribution
- Concept note: Catalysing Aggregated Purchasing Power – The Role of Private and Public Intra-City Procurement for Advancing City Climate Action
Context
- In 2025, Sweden joined the Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships (CHAMP) for Climate Action, with Viable Cities as a coordinator of Sweden’s engagement.
- One of the key developments for Sweden in CHAMP is about exploring and establishing a fund to strengthen financing for climate action in cities worldwide. With the Viability Fund for Cities, the ambition is to bridge the financial gap for local projects with great potential for impact and to contribute to both CHAMP’s and Sweden’s climate goals. Viability Fund for Cities is incubated by Viable Cities.
- A concept note was published the same day as this announcement, developed in collaboration with the Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance, the Green Transition Initiative and other partners. This concept note explains how aggregated purchasing power can act as key leverage for Intra-City Procurement for Advancing City Climate Action. Global alliances and national platforms are collaborating with Viable Cities to further develop a framework for aggregated purchasing power across sectors in cities. The framework sets a foundation for how subnational demand can catalyse system-wide change within key procurement areas such as construction, logistics, retrofitting and energy.
- In 2026, Viable Cities will initiate and, together with partners, develop a CHAMP Playbook for Multilevel-Governance for Climate Finance. This will include best practices of how system demonstrators can de-risk aggregated procurement and how the Viability Fund for Cities can play a critical role in securing necessary funding to scale transformative climate action in cities.
- Beyond engaging in CHAMP, Viable Cities co-organises a Global Initiative for Climate-Neutral Cities together with Dark Matter Labs and UN-Habitat. Other development partners include Green Transition Initiative, Global Environment Facility, First Movers Coalition, C40 Cities, the World Resources Institute, Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy, the Green Transition Initiative, Climate City Capital Hub (part of the NetZeroCities platform), Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance, and Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance.
