COP31 Presidency elevates finance and city action in implementation-focused agenda

• Presidency announces Ethiopia, Fiji, Indonesia, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as first five pilot countries for Climate Implementation Bridge finance initiative
• Through ILBANK, COP31 Presidency partners with UN-Habitat and World Bank to launch Sustainable Urban Resilience Financing Facility (SURFF)
• COP31 President-Designate: “Climate ambition without finance is like an EV without a battery – it won’t go anywhere.”

New York, Thursday 24th September, 2026

At New York Climate Week, the COP31 Presidency today outlined details of its key initiatives on finance and resilient cities as part of its implementation-focused Action Agenda.

The COP31 Presidency announced a major update, revealing the first five pilot countries for its Climate Implementation Bridge (BRIDGE) initiative. These initial pilot countries — Ethiopia, Fiji, Indonesia, Pakistan and Uzbekistan — will work with BRIDGE to support country-led pathways that marry climate finance with bankable project pipelines and build stronger national capacity to meet national climate and development targets.

The feedback from pilot countries will be used to inform delivery and scale-up the initiative for future participating countries, with developing countries, particularly Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Least Developed Countries (LDCs) registering strong interest and engagement.

The COP31 Presidency’s BRIDGE Initiative, with delivery partner UNDP, offers country-driven implementation support to help countries turn their climate and development priorities into finance-ready portfolios of projects. This will better connect climate goals, national development priorities and financing opportunities, identify implementation bottlenecks, strengthen countries' investment readiness, and enable them to benefit more effectively from the existing international support ecosystem.

At a separate event, the COP31 Presidency launched the Sustainable Urban Resilience Financing Facility (SURFF) as a key outcome for the summit. SURFF is an international, multistakeholder initiative developed by ILBANK in partnership with UN-Habitat and the World Bank, and aims to address the urban climate finance gaps that countries face as they implement their NDCs and NAPs.

SURFF aims to accelerate cross-sectoral urban resilience investment in low- and middle-income countries by closing the disconnect between national climate policy and delivery at the urban level. It will support countries and cities in translating climate commitments into tangible investment programmes and investment-ready projects that respond to local needs, while mobilising public and private finance and strengthening local implementation capacity.

SURFF is structured around three key pillars. The first is the Resilient Cities Country Platform, which will be country-led platforms connecting urban resilience priorities with project preparation, financing and implementation support.

The second pillar is the Resilient Cities Centre of Excellence, which will transform implementation experience into tools that can be used across countries, while the third pillar is the International Resilient Cities Dialogue, which will bring together member states and partners to share good practices on access to climate finance and implementation.

In a statement before the launch of the two flagship initiatives, Murat Kurum, Minister of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change for the Republic of Türkiye, said: “Climate ambition without finance is like an EV without a battery – it won’t go anywhere. We cannot let ambitious climate plans die because they didn’t get the support they needed. That is why our initiatives on finance and cities are designed to turn plans into investible projects, and match them with finance. This is the careful, technical work that is needed to make real progress.”

These priority initiatives continue the momentum established by the COP31 Presidency’s Action Agenda launch event on Monday, including the launch of its flagship “35-by-35 Global Electrification Pledge”, as well as a new pledge and initiative on climate-responsible AI.

Altogether, these steps mark a major step forward towards an implementation-focused annual COP climate summit in Antalya this November.

ENDS

Document and background

Download the press release (PDF, English)

The Action Agenda launch event on Monday: COP31 Presidency launches 35-by-35 Pledge and Antalya AI Pledge in New York.