World's mayors urge fiscal autonomy for cities to unlock public transport projects

World leaders should focus on helping cities "doing more, and acting faster, to reduce carbon emissions," as agreed in Paris in December, according to the mayors of cities across the globe.

The city leaders of the so-called C40 Cities, 490 cities that committed in Paris to "obust climate action in the years before 2020 by which time emissions must peak". But in a new report they say that the city governments face barriers to taking the actions they want to in order to "save a massive 450m tonnes of carbon emissions by 2020". Former mayors of New York, Paris and Rio de Janeiro say that "by giving cities the power to act we can protect our planet". Chief among the barriers they see is the inability of cities to access private sector capital.

Cities are stymied, they claim, by the limited financial autonomy most have and the lack of credit ratings - with only one in five able to borrow from the state, one in four able to issue municipal bonds and many unable to control revenue generated locally. The report urges greater devolution and points to how stronger leadership and better public engagement on the need for public transport projects, as with a bus rapid transit system in Houston, Texas, can ensure projects are delivered.

They C40 Cities urge more cities to follow Lima in Peru, which developed a BRT system with support from international experts and loans from foreign banks after it worked to obtain a credit rating and issued bonds. They claim that the C40 Cities Finance Facility, a project designed to unlock up to a $1bn in projects to reduce climate emissions by providing technical assistance, will help.

They hope that the Coalition for Urban Transitions, made up of global financial and business leaders, think-tanks and urban planning experts, "will help achieve the Paris climate goals by making cities a focus of national economic planning, improving city access to financing for low-carbon infrastructure and making the economic case for climate-friendly urban growth".