The City Climate Finance Gap Fund has announced the second round of cities that will receive free technical assistance to prepare “bankable” urban climate projects.

The six cities are Cuenca in Ecuador, Naucalpan in Mexico, Podgorica in Montenegro, Mbombela in South Africa, Lviv in Ukraine and Port Vila in Vanuatu, with projects including greening urban spaces, energy efficiency, renewable energy, sustainable mobility and waste and water management.

The Gap Fund, implemented by the World Bank and the European Investment Bank (EIB), in co-operation with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), is a new partnership supporting green, inclusive, resilient, creative and competitive cities in developing countries.

It back cities that face barriers such as insufficient capacity or technical knowledge when developing and financing urban climate projects and helps them at an early stage by offering free technical and advisory services to prioritise and prepare urban climate investments.

Through donor-supported technical assistance, with a target of at least €100 million (£86m) in funding, the Gap Fund aims to unlock an estimated €4 billion (£3.4bn) to help cities transform climate ambition into finance-ready projects.

EIB Vice President Ambroise Fayolle said: “Cities around the world produce more than two-thirds of global CO2 emissions. Many cities are experiencing the devastating impact of the climate crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic has made it even more difficult to respond to the challenge.

“The Gap Fund shows how through cooperation and partnerships we can provide cities from Mexico to Ukraine with the support they need to move project ideas to bankable projects. I want to thank the cities, the World Bank, our donors and partners from city networks for their excellent co-operation to deliver on our common Gap Fund objectives.”