Cities worldwide are moving decisively from ambition to implementation.

Each year, through CDP-ICLEI Track, they are disclosing thousands of climate projects with the potential to cut emissions, strengthen resilience, and deliver cleaner air, new jobs, and more equitable urban services. Yet significant barriers to finance, especially in emerging markets and developing economies, continue to limit their ability to act at scale.

CDP’s 2025 Global Snapshot, developed in partnership with the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCoM), highlights the infrastructure priorities and investment needs of over 500 cities that publicly reported their environmental data through CDP-ICLEI Track by October 2025. It also reveals clear trends in city climate project disclosure since 2020, showing that demand for finance has surged from US$35 billion in 2020 to over US$100 billion in 2025.

These insights demonstrate why year-on-year, comparable reporting is essential: it enables us to track progress, understand cities’ evolving infrastructure priorities and investment needs, and empower local governments to deliver on their climate action.