The virtual meeting among Hang Tuah Jaya stakeholders, IUC Asia team and UTM took place on 08 May 2020. The meeting aimed to identify mitigation climate change projects that could be developed in Hang Tuah Jaya’s concept note for the GCoM Gap Fund. The project candidates have included carbon transport and energy efficiency, which are related to the large number of carbon emissions generation according to a 2018 inventory report. Technical input was provided by UTM and the IUC Asia team to broaden both the depth and width of projects. The two important criteria, namely the capacity of emission reduction and blending climate funds, also need to be considered in the project selection. Blended finance leverages, given financial resources, may be dedicated to achieving project bankability.
Background
Meeting climate mitigation and adaptation objectives require pipelines of many thousand low-carbon urban infrastructure projects throughout the world. Public finance on its own will be insufficient. Development banks and the private sector recognize the magnitude of the challenge; thus, many are increasing funding to drive forward the Paris Agreement goals. However, one threat to attracting sufficient funding is that there is a gap in the ambitions of financial institutions to invest in the most impactful projects and the ability of the city’s most vulnerable to climate change to attract available funding. Cities often lack the capacity to develop a robust proof of concept that shows these projects will not only mitigate the effects of climate change and build the climate resilience but will also deliver a return on investment.
The Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCoM) is uniquely positioned to bridge this gap by helping cities to mature pipelines of projects from concept to a stage where they can be advanced towards full feasibility analysis and ultimately investment. Together with the Governments of Germany and Luxembourg, GCoM announced a City Climate Finance Gap Fund that will significantly increase the pipeline of high-quality bankable, climate friendly, urban infrastructure projects to meet the urgency of the climate crisis.
In recognition of upcoming Gap Fund opportunities, IUC Asia is assisting Hang Tuah Jaya to develop the initial concept note. As a next step, the concept note will be replenished according to the Gap Fund criteria and the IUC Asia will assist in the submission to the Gap Fund.
Tackling climate change is a priority for Hang Tuah Jaya, which has set ambitious short and long-term emissions reduction targets, i.e. to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions by 45% intensity carbon by 2030. According to 2018 GHG inventory, the electricity consumption contributes the largest GHG emissions, followed by the transportation sector.
