Project Cost and Financial Management Challenges in Greening Gauteng Metropolitan Cities

Urban greening is increasingly promoted as a pathway to sustainable and climate-resilient cities; however, its implementation in metropolitan municipalities is often constrained by persistent challenges in project costs and financial management. This qualitative study examines the institutional, fiscal, and financial factors shaping the costing and financing of urban greening initiatives in Gauteng’s metropolitan municipalities: Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with municipal officials, project managers, and environmental planners involved in green infrastructure planning and delivery, complemented by document analysis of municipal planning and financial reports. Thematic analysis reveals six interrelated challenges: institutional fragmentation, constrained fiscal capacity, weak cost estimation and project appraisal practices, limited access to innovative financing instruments, insufficient technical and monitoring capacity, and misalignment between environmental ambitions and financial accountability frameworks. The findings show that greening initiatives are often treated as discretionary expenditures rather than long-term investments, leading to underbudgeting, cost overruns, and reliance on short-term grants. The study argues that improving the financial sustainability of urban greening requires integrated green budgeting, strengthened project appraisal, life-cycle costing and investment appraisal, targeted capacity building, and reforms to municipal fiscal and audit frameworks. This paper contributes to debates on sustainable urban finance and offers policy-relevant insights for metropolitan municipalities in the Global South.