UrbanShift Adaptation Finance Academy for Brazilian Cities

From August 23 to 25, UrbanShift will be hosting the UrbanShift Adaptation Finance Academy in São Paulo to support Brazilian cities in understanding finance instruments for adaptation efforts, mobilizing financing for projects, and increasing capacity to mainstream adaptation and resilience in governance and municipal finance systems.  

Brazilian cities stand to benefit from capacity building around adaptation financing. Already facing climate impacts ranging from floods and landslides to water shortages and heat waves, cities are working urgently to manage current risks and plan for a more resilient future. While many cities in Brazil have prioritized adaptation and resilience measures in their local Climate Action Plans, there is less clarity and cohesion around mechanisms for funding these efforts. Alongside limited budgetary resources for climate projects, regulatory and bureaucratic barriers like lack of cross-governmental coordination and limited capacity for project preparation create barriers to implementation.  

Through this UrbanShift Adaptation Finance Academy, led by C40 Cities, UrbanShift will train representatives from around 11 Brazilian cities in best practices around project preparation and pipeline development to enable successful financing. During the Academy, city delegates will engage directly with international and regional finance institutions such as the GAP Fund (World Bank/EIB), IADB, CAF, and BNDES to learn how best to position their projects to access funding. Dedicated sessions on financing nature-based solutions with the WRI Cities4Forests initiative, integrating climate adaptation into local budget planning, and best practices from peer cities will deepen participants’ understanding and equip them with tangible tools to bring back to their cities. Cities will also share best practices and lessons learned from their own adaptation project implementation efforts.  

In the coming months, C40 will work alongside a team of Brazilian experts to develop a concise and actionable roadmap for Brazilian cities on securing funding and financing for adaptation projects, based on learnings from the UrbanShift Adaptation Finance Academy and extensive landscape research. This roadmap will be publicly available to all cities and interested parties on C40’s Knowledge Hub and partners websites. More information will be available soon—sign up for the UrbanShift newsletter and a C40 Knowledge Hub account to be notified.  

Speakers: 

• Marta Suplicy, Secretary of International Relations for São Paulo 
• Ilan Cuperstein, C40 Regional Director for LATAM 
• Bruno Incau, Regional, UrbanShift Coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean, WRI 
• Rodrigo de Oliveira Perpétuo, Executive Secretary of ICLEI South America 
• José Rafael Neto, Senior Executive / CAF Representation in Brazil 
• Bárbara Zamora, Senior executive: Urban development specialist. Management of Urban Development, Water and Creative Economies 
• Diego Arcia, Housing & Urban Development Sector Specialist, IADB 
• Jessica Grisanti, Urban development specialist, GAP Fund, World Bank. 
• André Souto, Manager at the Dept. of Urban Development, Culture and Tourism, BNDES 
• André Jacobsen, Executive Principal - Director of Habitat and Sustainable Mobility at CAF