Why invest in cities?

1. With adequate investment, cities can significantly reduce emissions and create good, green jobs, simultaneously protecting the environment and our future.

According to C40 research, for C40 cities to contribute their fair share towards reducing emissions and limiting global heating to 1.5°C, 50 million green jobs are required. Green jobs will help create healthier, fairer communities with lower unemployment and rejuvenated economies that are no longer tied to fossil fuels that have long exacerbated energy poverty worldwide.

Our research shows that comprehensive climate action by C40 cities could result in over 30% more jobs compared to today’s “business-as-usual” economic approach. It could also reduce air pollution by up to 30% and deliver $280 billion in health-related economic benefits in C40 cities driven by reduced fossil fuel use.

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C40 cities are showing the highest level of climate ambition; since 2011, cities have tripled the number of transformative climate actions implemented annually, showing that mayors are scaling up efforts to tackle the climate crisis and create resilient cities.

Transformative actions are science-based, politically ambitious, locally-relevant, and high-impact policies, programmes or projects that profoundly alter business-as-usual practices in the city they are implemented. These actions benefit frontline communities, have been co-created with relevant stakeholders, and are scalable and replicable across cities.
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For example, Jalisco’s 2021 drought caused severe water shortages in the city, prompting the Metropolitan Area of Guadalajara to launch the Nidos de Lluvia (Rain Nests) programme to improve water security and boost resilience. The city installed rainwater collection and harvesting systems in the most water-vulnerable neighbourhoods. In 2021, 16 million litres of water were collected via 600 harvesting systems, providing water to over 2,000 residents. Metro Guadalajara estimates that by 2024, nearly 60,000 people will have improved water security, reducing the rates of critical water vulnerability by 67%.
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