Thinking topologically about urban climate finance: geographical inequalities and Mexico's urban landscapes of infrastructure investment

Clearly, the resources available for tackling the deleterious effects of climate change differ starkly within and between cities. Increasing evidence indicates that uneven climate investments further aggravate these inequalities in cities' capacities to combat climate change. This article delves further into the efforts of urban climate finance (UCF) initiatives - programs that seek to foster "green investment" - and the spatial relations they forge: How do these initiatives shape global geographies of (dis)investment in urban climate action? We suggest that a topological conceptualization provides an analytic for examining the spatial functioning of UCF initiatives. Considering how these initiatives intervene in Mexican cities, this relational conceptualization highlights how they forge relations marked by heightened intensity of climate action in some sites where the initiatives aim to pull resources together to bring climate projects about. Simultaneously, we show the disconnection of other urban sites to income streams, pushing cities further "off the map" of available support.