How can cities in the Global South finance climate action in ways that are both effective and fair? We recently discussed the findings of our SNSF-funded research project «The Urbanization of Global Climate Finance» with local experts, government officials, international cooperation agencies, and climate activists in Mexico City.

Urban areas in the Global South are at the forefront of the climate crisis. Municipalities are tasked with building green infrastructure, reducing emissions, and adapting to the impacts of climate change. This challenge is not only economic, but also involves critical tasks for urban governance. Actors like international financial institutions, philanthropic institutions, development cooperations, and city networks are stepping into this gap. These organizations have put forth a number of global initiatives to facilitate financing for urban infrastructure.

Our SNSF-project The Urbanization of Global Climate Finance investigated how these initiatives advance municipal reform and shape global geographies and modalities of green investment. And we explored how urban climate actions are increasingly tied to financial market interests and investment strategies.

What we found out over the last four years

• Investment is uneven: While some cities can access global funding, others are left behind Hilbrandt & Grafe 2023; Grafe et al. 2023.
• Green initiatives are advancing structural adjustment at the urban scale: Climate initiatives often promote municipal reform Barroso Olmedo & Hilbrandt 2025.
• Intermediaries matter: Urban actors help to maintain local action despite the limited timespan of international projects (Barroso Olmedo & Grafe, forthcoming).
• Definitions are narrow: What counts as “climate finance” often excludes the financial efforts of ordinary people Knuth et al. 2025; Hilbrandt et al. 2025.
• Local power is key: Municipal actors navigate what urban climate futures look like Hilbrandt 2025.

A different kind of workshop

On February 20–21, 2025, we hosted a workshop at the Universidad Autónoma de México to bring together local experts, government officials, representatives from international cooperation agencies, and climate activists. This entailed a double challenge: On the one hand, we wanted to facilitate a fruitful dialogue among these different actors. On the other hand, we aimed to communicate critical findings to those in the midst of – and potentially complicit with – the governance reforms our research project criticized. What emerged was a space of mutual learning. We decided to communicate these findings in video format so the participants could share them with their home institutions.

Rather than basing the workshops’ thematic foci and problem framings solely on the findings of the research team, we sought to use the perspectives of all participants and define the workshop’s aims collaboratively. To maximise interactions and build engagement, we developed the event in collaboration with the communication agency Pinkfish. Building on the toolkit Liberating Structures (Lipmanowicz & McCandless 2013) allowed us to design the workshop around the participants› challenges. Additionally, we used the visual method of scribing to create orientation during moments of contention, to disentangle complicated topics, and to document discussions. The results are presented in the workshop report.   Final Workshop Report: The Challenges of Financing Climate Action in Mexican Municipalities

References

Barroso-Olmedo, E. & Grafe, F.-J. (forthcoming 2025) The quest for sustainable cities: Rethinking Practitioners in the (re-)making of Urban Institutions, Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy

Barroso Olmedo, E. and H. Hilbrandt (2025) Ajuste Estructural Municipal: Un análisis institucional del financiamiento climático en ciudades fronterizas del norte de México. Revista De Geografía Norte Grande. https://esla.letras.uc.cl/index.php/RGNG/article/view/85942

Grafe, F.-J.; Forino, G.; Fraser, A.; Hilbrandt, H. and J. H. Morris (2023) Understanding the functioning of urban climate finance through topologies of reach. City. https://doi.org/10.1080/13604813.2023.2284383

Grafe, F.-J.; Hilbrandt, H. and T. van der Haegen (2023) The financial ecologies of climate urbanism: Project preparation and the anchoring of global climate finance, Journal of Urban Affairs. https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2023.2235035

Hilbrandt, H., & Grafe, F. J. (2023). Thinking topologically about urban climate finance: geographical inequalities and Mexico’s urban landscapes of infrastructure investment. Urban Geography, 45(3), 332–351. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2023.2176599

Hilbrandt, H.; Grafe, F.-J.; Colven, E.; Knuth, S.; Ponder, S.; Robin, E. and Z. Taylor (2025). Decentering Urban Climate Finance. Introduction to the Special Feature. City: Analysis of Urban Change, Theory, Action. https://doi.org/10.1080/13604813.2025.2456367

Hilbrandt, H. (2025) Beyond the powers of seduction: tracing bureaucratic agency in the making of global climate finance. Critical Policy Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/19460171.2025.2467682

Knuth, S.; Taylor, Z., Hofmann, S. Z.; Grafe, F.-J. and CS Ponder (2025) The urbanization of climate finance: Understanding for urban action. Journal of Urban Affairs. https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2024.2393973

Hanna Hilbrandt, Social Geography and Urban Studies