Cities are at the forefront of the climate crisis, but too often, they’re working with limited tools, fragmented data, and outdated systems. During this year’s London Climate Action Week (LCAW), our team at CityCatalyst participated in 12 events focused on urban resilience, finance, and technology. We walked away with one clear message:

                  Climate action at the city level can move faster if we fix the way we collect, manage, and use data.

From policy roundtables to networking with global climate leaders, we explored how cities can better access funding, build partnerships, and drive transformation using smart, connected infrastructure.

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Top 3 Takeaways from LCAW 2025

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1. Urban Climate Finance Needs Smarter Pipelines

Cities are facing $250 billion in annual flood-related losses, yet less than 5% of those losses are typically insured. Institutions like the Adaptation Fund, C40 Finance Facility, and the Climate Policy Initiative are doubling down on blended finance and project preparation support to close this gap.

          $1 invested in adaptation yields $5 in avoided losses.

We met with actors like Zurich Insurance, Nordic Development Fund, and EBRD Green Cities to explore how data-backed planning can unlock new financial opportunities.

2. Data Is Still the Missing Link

From BigQuery climate datasets (Google) to satellite-powered modeling (Ocean Ledger, Lobelia), there’s no shortage of climate intelligence, but cities lack the time, tools, or capacity to use it.

Several sessions highlighted the urgency of AI-supported, user-friendly platforms that connect existing systems and eliminate silos, a vision we’re building into the heart of CityCatalyst.

3. Collaboration Is the Catalyst

We connected with over 30 organizations, including Accenture, KPMG, Microsoft, WWF, C40, Salesforce Foundation, IBM, and many more. Everyone agrees: no single player can solve the climate crisis; we need better city-consultant-funder partnerships to scale real solutions.

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Our Role: Making City Data Actionable

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CityCatalyst is an open-source platform that helps cities:

• Build GHG inventories with minimal effort
  
  
• Access curated datasets to fill data gaps
  
  
• Generate climate action plans aligned with national targets
  
  
• Collaborate with consultants and funders through a shared interface
  
  

Our takeaway from LCAW? The demand is there. What cities need is clarity, speed, and support to go from insight to implementation.

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What’s Next?

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We're currently exploring pilots with cities in the CHAMP and GCoM networks, and following up with dozens of organizations looking to collaborate on:

• Climate finance tracking
  
  
• Resilience planning
  
  
• Smart data integration
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• Proposal writing for climate funding

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If you're a city official, consultant, funder, or partner organization working on climate and data, we’d love to hear from you.

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Let’s connect: info@openearth.org
Or book a demo to explore how CityCatalyst can help.

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