Senior Manager, City Finance, Brazil

The Project

The Brazil Program is a strategic partnership between C40 Cities and the Global Covenant of Mayors (GCoM), funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, to accelerate the implementation of climate action across Brazilian cities. The program aims to unlock delivery at scale by identifying and preparing high-impact, finance-ready urban climate projects while strengthening the institutional frameworks that support long-term transformation. It combines on-the-ground implementation with targeted support to federal and multilevel governance, leveraging Brazil's growing climate ambition and the opportunity presented by COP30 in Belém.

Over the next two years, the program will engage at least 50 cities, supporting them to move from planning to action through data-driven project identification, readiness assessments, and capacity-building. At least 20 priority actions—particularly in sustainable transport and waste—will be prepared for implementation, with a strong focus on financial viability, social inclusion, and emissions impact. These efforts will be complemented by cross-cutting strategies on climate budgeting, just transition, and strengthened data ecosystems. Working in close coordination with federal actors and national city networks, the program will create the enabling conditions for long-term, replicable investment in urban climate solutions across Brazil.

Alongside implementation, the program will leverage Brazil's leadership in global climate diplomacy to elevate city voices, strengthen and establish a model of multilevel coordination for other countries, and integrate local action into the international climate agendas. With COP30 in Belém, the initiative brings visibility to the urban Amazon, supporting practical solutions in cities facing deep socio-economic and environmental challenges. It will also showcase CHAMP in action, using Brazil's COP30 Presidency and co-chair role in the NDC Partnership to promote the inclusion of subnational contributions in NDCs. By advancing Climate Federalism and amplifying mayoral leadership—especially from the Amazon—the program aims to inspire globally just, inclusive, and locally driven climate action.

Finance component outcomes

Context setting

Despite the increasing availability of climate finance, Brazilian cities continue to face significant barriers in accessing and effectively deploying funds. Without adequate local capacity and stronger integration with national strategies, municipalities struggle to transform their climate plans into bankable, investable projects.

Intended Outcome

Twenty projects across Brazilian cities implement successful pathways to finance (via Brazil CHAMP Finance Working Group)

Program delivery to achieve the outcome:

Strengthen cities' capacity and access to financial resources for urban projects through a convergent approach with technical and financial cooperation institutions. This includes positioning the Brazil Working Group (WG) on Local Climate Finance as the finance arm of CHAMP in Brazil and engaging with its members such as WRI to support the Network of Financial Institutions —particularly regional development banks— in overcoming financing barriers faced by cities. This will be done through a 3 pillar approach. All 3 pillars will feed in a structured approach to inform the MMA-WB-Gap Fund partnership work to ensure the voice of cities are included into the effort to consolidate PCVR as a subnational climate finance accelerator.

1. Demand side:
   1. Support city-level project definition and readiness. Provide capacity building to GRC model cities to define high-impact projects and develop project finance roadmaps—starting with a dedicated workshop in August 2025
   2. Identify at least 20 transport and waste projects with finance needs and connect to tailored Technical Assistance (TA) (including C40 internal support led by transport and waste teams) and, as needed, to other TA/Project Preparation Facilities (PPFs).
      
      
2. Supply side:
   1. Mapping city focused federal climate initiatives across ministries in the context of the WG.
   2. Support as needed into existing or planned consolidated mapping of existing TA, PPF and finance offers for climate projects in Brazil and their eligibility criteria.
   3. Support to the ministry of Finance on improving subnational climate finance (in the context of the Accelerator WG, WB, GIZ and WRI current engagements).
   4. Fund a strategic grant to WRI to lead technical work and ensure alignment with national priorities, supporting the development of a shared agenda for local climate finance and coordination with financial institutions and development banks.
   5. Establish a financier Working Group for engagement with the Ministry of Finance: Create a group to draft an evidence-based narrative aimed at engaging with the Ministry of Finance, particularly the Treasury Secretariat, to improve fiscal flexibility for smaller cities facing climate-related risks.
   6. Publish and build visibility of the "State of Cities Climate Finance report", which will provide a granular breakdown of urban climate finance in Brazil.
      

1. Connector activities:
   1. Advance 20 high-impact urban climate projects by facilitating connection with suitable funding and financing sources through matchmaking efforts. providing tailored support on project preparation—including data collection, policy alignment, investment thesis development, and pipeline structuring. These projects will be connected to suitable funding sources through matchmaking efforts.
   2. Deliver a Finance Academy 2026 as the main milestone for closing of the WB-MMA-GAP Fund work to consolidate PCVR as a local climate finance accelerator, strengthening PCVR under the new leadership of the Ministry of Cities in 2026 and matching city projects with investors and financiers.

The City Finance Programme

C40's City Finance Programme works to address a range of municipal climate finance challenges, at different stages of project maturity, and across major urban infrastructure groups: clean energy, zero-carbon buildings, transportation, waste and climate adaptation & resilience. By scaling up investment in these areas, and simultaneously divesting from fossil fuels, mayors are creating safer, healthier and more economically sustainable communities for the current and future residents of their cities. The team's strategic focus is on strengthening city financial capacity, increasing the supply of climate finance and funding available to cities, facilitating engagement with finance providers, and building enabling environments that support urban climate investment. The core City Finance Programme team oversees and/or coordinates with special projects and initiatives within C40 that also have a finance focus, including ZEBRA, Laneshift, C40 Cities Finance Facility, UrbanShift, Climate Budgeting Pilot Project, and others.

The City Finance Programme's transportation finance portfolio emphasises clean bus and freight technologies, and has potential to expand to additional strategic areas including walking & cycling, public transport improvement, clean air zones, vehicle charging infrastructure, and others.

The Brazil CHAMP Finance Working Group (WG) is a key part of the finance workstream of CHAMP (Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships) in Brazil. Partners currently include World