Senior Manager - City Climate Finance

Position Description :

- The Senior Manager, City Climate Finance will be responsible for supporting cities in India in increasing investment in critical climate activities and urban infrastructure projects as an outcome of the Climate Action Plans.

- Among a range of tasks, this work will include supporting mainstreaming of climate activities into municipal financial operations, supporting climate budgeting, delivering capacity-building support for city officials, developing finance or funding strategies for key projects, facilitating connections between city government staff and financiers, and working to improve the enabling environment for climate investment.

- The post-holder will engage with diverse stakeholders such as public and commercial financial institutions, sub-national, national and city government actors, philanthropic funders, project preparation facilities, and other financiers or investors to support implementation of city climate action plans.

- They will work as part of a team providing in-depth support to develop roadmaps for high impact policy implementation in strategic sectors like energy, buildings, transport, and resilience and help establish business cases for the same through modelling, feasibility assessments, communicating costs and benefits, and peer-sharing.

- The post holder will also work with global teams, identifying best practices and scheduling as required workshops, peer to peer and ad-hoc learning as needed.

- The post-holder will also play a key role within a project whose primary objective is to accelerate the deployment of zero emission mobility in Indian cities in a way that is fair and inclusive. The post-holder will work to ensure cities and stakeholders receive timely, relevant, and effective technical and strategic support on finance that leads to on-the-ground results.

- This will entail working closely with governments, private sector companies, vehicle owners and operators, public and private finance institutions, consultants, data aggregators, utilities and other stakeholders to identify and systematically overcome finance barriers within each city and across the region.

Responsibilities :

1. Develop a multi-pronged finance support strategy that addresses finance challenges related to the implementation of inclusive climate action in Indian cities.

2. Engage with city, sub-nation and national government officials responsible for climate action and for financing investment, policy and operations.

3. Build relationships and engage substantively with a network of finance providers with the goal of increasing investment in climate action implementation.

4. Oversee a landscape analysis of finance needs, knowledge gaps, partners, city financial powers, options and costs to be used as the basis for a finance workstream strategy.

5. Develop targets (e.g., investment goals, etc.) to measure progress on financing objectives and provide milestones for project implementation.

6. Lead a range of capacity building and peer support activities to strengthen capacity to attract and utilize funding/finance for inclusive city climate action.

7. Collaborate with program to bring their experience and expertise in organizing capacity building events with city staff.

8. Work with consultants and regional partners to support technical assistance needs related to finance.

9. Lead the finance workstream of a new project focused on decarbonizing urban freight in Indian cities, including facilitation of a finance/investment working group.

10. Work with cities in identifying and assessing possible market segments to be targeted for zero emission freight.

11. Conduct research and interviews with companies that have transitioned to zero emission freight in the region and develop an understanding of the business case, challenges, opportunities, lessons learned and needs.

12. Support on communications related to fair and inclusive finance and funding of city climate action in India.

13. Procure and manage consultants supporting relevant aspects of the finance workstreams.

14. Represent the organization at relevant events or speaking engagements.

15. Draft and review presentations, reports and other documents as necessary.

16. Other duties as required.

Functional details:

1. Work Experience of 10+ years preferable

2. Extensive experience developing finance for urban infrastructure and public policy projects in government, business, research and/or NGO sectors.

3. Experience in supporting the development and implementation of projects with a strong focus on inclusivity and social equity.

4. Knowledge of global best practices and approaches to financing decarbonization at the municipal, national and international level, required; advanced degree in relevant discipline preferred.

5. Experience with business case development, financial modelling and/or quantitative analysis of freight or transport infrastructure in relation to climate change is desirable.

6. Demonstrable project management experience, including oversight of concurrent activities and consultants.

7. Strong strategic thinking capabilities coupled with an outcome, delivery-orientated approach.

8. Strong abilities to work with others, both as a facilitator and an agenda driver with a highly collaborative approach to problem solving.

9. Experience working with complex multi-stakeholder partnerships with an emphasis on prior experience engaging banks, non-bank financial institutions, capital markets authorities, government officials, project investors, etc.

10. Ability to communicate complex content in a compelling manner.

11. Demonstrated convening and facilitation skills.

12. Fluent in English (spoken and written), Fluency in local Indian language will be helpful.