Primer for Cities for Accessing Financing for Municipal Solid Waste Projects

The purpose of this primer is to guide municipal government decision-makers in their efforts to access financing for capital-intensive, revenue-generating, climate-sensitive projects.
As more power over municipal solid waste management is devolved from national to sub-national authorities, cities are enjoying increasing autonomy in selecting the most appropriate mechanism for addressing their sanitation needs; simultaneously, they are also facing the challenge of limited financial resources to meet both operational and long-term investment needs.
The Climate and Clean Air Coalition’s Municipal Solid Waste Initiative commissioned this primer, via the International Solid Waste Association, to identify the universal challenges that city leaders face in accessing finance for investment projects and propose implementable solutions that fit within the Coalition’s objectives:

Raising awareness of short-lived climate pollutant impacts and mitigation strategies
Enhancing and developing new national and regional actions, including by identifying and overcoming barriers, increasing capacity, and mobilizing support
Promoting best practices and showcasing successful efforts
Improving scientific understanding of short-lived climate pollutant impacts and mitigation strategies

Because of its brevity, this primer is not intended to provide recommendations on the most appropriate technology for municipal solid waste management as this information is available in other publications from the Coalition and its peers. Similarly, this primer is built upon the assumption that cities are committed to designing projects that will be financed through some form of market-based finance, where the investing entities expect long-term economic project sustainability.
This publication is intended to be a snapshot of the opportunities for financial innovation at the end of 2016 but with regular updates of its appendices on particular funding opportunities on a semi-annual basis.