Energy, water, transport and waste systems must be considered together to build a sustainable city, Aliya Azimova, the International Finance Corporation's (IFC) representative for Azerbaijan, said.
According to Report, she made the remarks on the second day of Baku Climate Action Week 2026 (BCAW 2026).
"We already know how green buildings should be constructed. I think we also know how to produce sustainable materials. We know how infrastructure should be designed to meet higher resilience standards. In my view, the current challenge is how to move from good individual projects to changing the operating model of the entire urban market.
"Financing is an important issue here. Cities do not operate sector by sector, and climate risk, with the exception of agriculture and some other areas, does not emerge in such a fragmented way either. Therefore, I would like to highlight several points that are important from a financing perspective. This is an approach we have tested in our own experience and observed globally.
"We therefore need to move from climate plans to portfolios of investment projects and to concrete investments that go beyond individual assets and projects, addressing how urban systems can be dealt with in practice. A green building is important, but by itself it does not make a city sustainable," she said.
Azimova added that IFC's approach in the markets where it operates has evolved in precisely this direction.
"We have the APEX Green Cities program. Under this program, we approach a city as a single system encompassing energy, buildings, water, waste, transport and, as Patricia mentioned, increasingly artificial intelligence and digital infrastructure as well.
"This helps us identify where interventions are most needed in cities and where the greatest economic and climate value can be created. Through APEX Green Cities, we operate in markets including India, Colombia, South Africa and a number of other countries. We also partner with C40 to apply the same systemic approach," she said.
Azimova also said that the key issue in Azerbaijan's infrastructure modernization is the allocation of risks.
"One of the biggest constraints we see is not a lack of capital or a shortage of projects that cities need. What is missing are the intermediate steps between climate and urban plans and concrete transactions. These include prioritization, project preparation, aggregation, appropriate risk allocation and the creation of financing structures.
"I believe this is where international financial institutions and development banks can provide the greatest value. This is extremely relevant for Azerbaijan because the country is currently upgrading its energy and transport infrastructure, as well as water and sanitation systems, while the construction sector continues to be one of the main drivers of economic growth.
"The key factor determining scale is whether we can change the rules and how risks are shared across the economy and those investments," she said.