As part of the preparations for COP31, the “Building Resilient Cities: From Policy Ambition to Investable Action” event, jointly organized by İLBANK and the World Bank Group, was held in Istanbul on 19 October 2026. CDP Türkiye Country Director Mirhan Köroğlu Göğüş also participated in the event, where discussions focused on scaling up investments to strengthen urban resilience to climate change and connecting these investments with appropriate financing and technical support mechanisms.

When the key topics discussed at the meeting are considered from the perspective of CDP’s experience in environmental reporting, three areas stand out. The first is the stronger integration of existing environmental data into investment decisions. Data provided by cities on climate risks, adaptation priorities and financing needs can serve as an important resource for determining where and how investments should be prioritized. Tools such as CDP-ICLEI Track and the Adaptation & Action Explorer also enable this information to be assessed in a more systematic and comparable manner.

Second, it is important to bridge the gap between investment needs and investable projects. CDP’s work with the City Climate Finance Gap Fund demonstrates the importance of identifying projects at an early stage and directing municipalities towards the appropriate technical support mechanisms. Focusing solely on projects that are already ready for financing risks leaving behind cities that face high climate vulnerability but have limited project development capacity.

Another important issue is establishing stronger connections between existing systems. While local climate priorities need to be reflected in national policy and financing processes, it is equally important that these processes are designed without increasing the reporting burden on municipalities.

From a CDP perspective, the success of SURFF and the Resilient Cities Country Platform approach will depend not only on the scale of financing mobilized, but also on the extent to which existing data can be translated into concrete investment decisions, project preparation capacity can be strengthened, and financing can reach areas with the highest levels of climate vulnerability.

At CDP Türkiye, we believe that more effectively integrating environmental data into decision-making and investment processes, strengthening project development capacity, and increasing multi-stakeholder collaboration will play an important role in advancing climate-resilient cities.