The session aims to emphasize the importance of embedding climate resilience and social inclusion in urban development policies and management, while identifying regulatory and institutional measures that can unlock innovative financing and strengthen investment readiness of cities.

The session is expected to generate actionable strategies for accelerating investments in climate-resilient, gender-inclusive urban infrastructure. It will highlight how cities can unlock and leverage diverse financing channels, including public, private, and development finance by adopting instruments and approaches that embed climate and social priorities into urban investment frameworks.

The session aims to explore how cities can mobilize diverse financing mechanisms to deliver urban public services that are both climate-resilient and gender-inclusive. Through a multi-stakeholder dialogue, the discussion will highlight enabling policy frameworks, institutional innovations, and investment strategies that can drive equitable and sustainable urban transformation.

The session will unpack diverse infrastructure financing options for urban basic services, highlighting public, private, and blended models. Participants will explore innovative instruments and enabling conditions to strengthen project bankability and ensure sustainable, inclusive urban service delivery.

The session aims to underscore the strategic importance of urban reforms in shaping a conducive environment for infrastructure financing. It will explore how strengthening municipal systems, governance frameworks, and financial capacities can lay the foundation for sustainable and inclusive urban investment.

The session will highlight how foundational urban reforms can strengthen municipal capacity, improve financial health, and enhance governance to attract sustainable infrastructure investment. It aims to outline practical strategies for building investment-ready, resilient cities. Discussions will also focus on unlocking private and blended capital through regulatory and institutional enablers.

The session aims to showcase practical experiences of urban local bodies and para-statal agencies in ac-cessing funds for green, climate-resilient, gender-inclusive urban infrastructure through tools such as municipal bonds and blended/ pooled finance. Through case study presentations, it will highlight key strategies, challenges, and lessons learned that can inform and inspire other cities to leverage these instruments for climate-aligned and financially sustainable urban development.

Participants will gain practical insights from ULB officials on successful strategies for accessing finances through pooled funds, municipal bonds, and green bonds. The session will highlight project eligibility criteria, financing processes, and risk management approaches, while showcasing the tangible benefits realized by issuing cities. The discussion is expected to empower other ULBs to adopt these instruments for strengthen-ing sustainable urban development and mobilizing resources for climate action.

The session aims to explore strategies to balance upfront capital expenditure (Capex) with long-term operational and maintenance (Opex) costs in urban infrastructure. It will also examine how municipalities can plan for O&M obligations from the design phase of projects, discuss different financing instruments and contractual mechanisms for ensuring lifecycle sustainability and address risks for assets created financing measures for preparedness and residual risks.

A clear understanding among city leaders and practitioners of why Opex planning is as critical as Capex mobilization. Knowledge of financing models and tools that can support balanced lifecycle financing. Actionable recommendations for integrating Opex into project design and financing strategies as well as addressing un-foreseen risks arising during the project lifetime. Identification of opportunities for collaboration between cit-ies, financial institutions, and technical partners.

The session aims to strengthen the capacity of urban stakeholders to conceptualize and structure infrastructure pro-jects that are both financially viable and socially inclusive. It will focus on practical tools and strategies for designing bankable proposals, with an emphasis on aligning project design with climate resilience goals and gender inclusion imperatives.

The session is expected to offer practical insights into the concept of bankability in urban infrastructure. Discussions may cover key stages of project preparation, financing approaches, and factors that influence investor confidence and project viability in the context of climate-resilient and inclusive urban development.

The session aims to explore strategic pathways for cities to effectively leverage central and state government schemes as catalytic instruments, highlighting policy alignment, institutional coordination, and innovative financing approaches that can facilitate scalable, climate-resilient, inclusive urban investments.

The session is expected to provide strategic insights into institutional reforms, capacity building strategies, innovative financial methods, and the necessary policy alignments required at different levels for enabling cities to fully leverage the central and state urban development schemes.

The session aims to explore innovative approaches to structuring public-private partnerships for urban infrastructure. It will focus on strategies to reduce investment risks and enhance collaboration between public agencies and private sector stakeholders in emerging urban contexts.

By rethinking PPP models for emerging cities, this panel will outline how to de-risk urban investments through tools like guarantees and viability gap funding. Expected outcomes include adaptable PPP frameworks, investor confidence-building measures, and mechanisms to attract private capital into infrastructure projects that traditionally face regulatory and financial uncertainty.

The purpose of this session is to create a direct engagement platform between cities and financial institutions. It will enable cities to showcase their infrastructure ideas and projects in a structured manner, highlighting their financial, technical, and social dimensions. At the same time, it will allow financiers to share immediate perspectives on the strengths of each proposal and potential areas of improvement. By facilitating this exchange, the session seeks to enhance the capacity of cities to approach financial markets with greater confidence while offering financiers a first-hand look at emerging opportunities in India's urban infrastructure landscape. In addition to cities and financiers, the session also provides value to the broader audience by offering them a window into the range of innovative urban infrastructure projects being developed across India, alongside the practical realities of project financing. This shared learning experience will help build a wider pool of urban practitioners and stakeholders who are better equipped to support financially viable, cli-mate-resilient, inclusive urban development.

The expected outcomes include constructive, experience-based feedback that helps cities refine their proposals and strengthen their case for investment; potential alignment of projects with the priorities of financial institutions, creating scope for follow-up discussions; and valuable insights for the wider audience into both the substance of urban infrastructure projects and the way financing decisions are made.

As part of the EU–India component of the International Urban and Regional Cooperation (IURC) programme, this launch event marks the first official engagement with participating pilot cities in India. The meeting will introduce the IURC framework, provide orientation on its objectives, and build a shared understanding of co-operation priorities.

The session will serve as a platform for Indian cities and EU partners to initiate dialogue, clarify the scope of collaboration, and explore mutual areas of interest such as climate adaptation, sustainable mobility, circular economy, and urban innovation. Participants will also gain an overview of how IURC Asia & Australasia will facilitate partnerships and the expected commitments from both sides.

The session is expected to result in a shared understanding of the IURC framework and its objectives among participating Indian pilot cities and EU partners. It will help identify common urban priorities such as climate adaptation, sustainable mobility, circular economy, and urban innovation as key areas for cooperation. Through the exchange of experiences, city representatives will highlight local challenges and best practices related to service delivery, resilience, and governance, enabling EU partners to better understand the Indian context. The discussions are expected to initiate structured dialogue and outline potential pathways for collaboration, including technical exchanges and capacity-building initiatives. By the end of the meeting, participants are anticipated to express intent toward developing joint action plans and to agree on next steps for continued engagement under the IURC Asia & Australasia framework, fostering a shared vision for sustainable and innovative urban development.

The session aims to examine innovative and inclusive financing strategies for urban mobility systems that serve all segments of society. It will explore various funding mechanisms with a focus on integrating gender equality and social inclusion to ensure equitable access and long-term sustainability of transport infrastructure.

The panel is expected to propose a multi-pronged financing strategy including land value capture through Transit-Oriented Development (TOD), user charges, municipal bonds with credit enhancement, viability gap funding (VGF), and blended finance from multilateral agencies while focusing on gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) to ensure equitable access and impact.

This session aims to explore how strategic investments in affordable housing can address both social equity and climate adaptation goals. Positioning housing as a driver of resilience, economic development, and environmental sustainability for building climate-resilient, inclusive, and sustainable cities.

Expected outcomes include identifying innovative, climate-aligned financing models and policy reforms to support scalable, inclusive affordable housing. The session will also outline a roadmap to integrate housing into urban resilience and climate adaptation strategies. Emphasis will be placed on including the informal sector and streamlining regulatory and land access processes.

The session aims to showcase case studies from Indian cities on embedding resilience into infrastructure planning and financing, starting with insights on how international financing agencies like KfW Development Bank approach resilience for potential financing of projects in India. The presentations would help identify lessons on integrating risk identification, climate adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and resilience co-benefits into urban infrastructure, and highlight the financing and governance innovations that have enabled resilience-building in the featured cities.

The case studies and interactions would highlight how to operationalize resilience in infrastructure projects and provide clarity on the role of planning institutions, municipal leadership, and financing mechanisms in resilience embedding. Insights on successful international practices that can be adapted in the Indian context shall be shared, along with recommendations for integrating resilience metrics into city-level financing frameworks.

This session will highlight how EU technical assistance is strengthening climate finance, project preparation, and institutional capacity to help Indian cities deliver climate-resilient infrastructure. It will feature presentations on CITIIS 2.0, International and Regional Urban Cooperation (IURC) and the Climate Project Preparation Facility (CPPF), showcasing how these initiatives support cities through project design, capacity building, and private sector engagement. The session will conclude with reflections on how these efforts can be scaled up across more cities in India, advancing the country's net-zero and sustainable development agenda.

The session is expected to highlight importance of technical assistance through various programmes for sup-porting implementation of projects considering climate resilience, environmental and social-frameworks ensuring investments in urban infrastructure. The session will discuss the success factors of previous pro-grammes and deliberate on the essential components for scaling - up the successes.

This session aims to highlight the role of project preparation facilities (PPFs) supporting cities mobilizing climate finance, the wider project preparation and finance ecosystem for cities and share the knowledge and experiences of C40 Cities Finance Facility (CFF) in India context.

Expected outcomes include
1) strengthening connections between the Indian Government, Indian cities, PPFs like CFF, and global climate finance coalitions,
2) increasing awareness about project preparation and ways of linking to finance among Indian officials, including CFF's support to Mumbai as a practical example in addition to
3) creating an enabling environment to scale urban climate finance for cities at the national level.