This report is the product of a collaborative effort between the Centre for Public Impact, The Kresge Foundation, C40 Cities North America, the Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN) and Climate Mayors.

Insights on the future of urban climate action are inspired by the contributions of city leaders, funders, and nonprofit partners who came together for a closed-door roundtable at the Aspen Ideas Climate event to reflect on barriers, unlock new thinking and co-develop priorities for action.

This report shares takeaways and what it could mean for cities and funders alike, including:

• Barriers to progress persist across the system: misaligned goals, siloed governance, fragmented funding, ineffective messaging and equity that is often treated as an add-on rather than embedded.
• Activating leverage points can lead to transformation: areas of opportunity include reframing climate goals around community outcomes, building coalition capacity, investing in the “connective tissue” of systems and supporting local leaders as system stewards.
• Commitments in motion demonstrate that change is possible now: participants left with 60-day shifts to test, ranging from reworking city goals and shared governance models to evolving philanthropic investment practices.