Global Commission on Urban SDG Finance

By 2050, two out of every three people will be living in urban areas, and cities are the key to meeting the SDGs and Paris Agreement goals. Cities need new financial mechanisms and governance systems that can scale up effectively and quickly over the next 20 years. Yet, cities currently confront a global financial architecture that isn’t fit for purpose, and subnational and urban SDG financing is woefully lagging.

In response to this challenge, in 2023, the SDSN, in partnership with the Penn Institute for Urban Research at the University of Pennsylvania, established a Global Commission for Urban SDG Finance.

Co-chaired by the SDSN’s President, Jeffrey Sachs, Paris’ Mayor Anne Hidalgo, and Rio de Janeiro’s Mayor Eduardo Paes, the Commission includes over 80 mayors, researchers, and experts. It aims to identify barriers to urban SDG financing and propose strategies to align global financial systems with urban development needs.

In November 2024, the Commission proposed the “Green Cities Guarantee Fund” to increase the flow of public and private capital into subnational climate-responsive projects.