Cities Matter: Capacity building in sub-Saharan African megacities for transformational climate change mitigation

Megacities in sub-Saharan Africa are severely affected by climate change and are submitting a large proportion of greenhouse gas emissions. The project supported technical capacity building for long-term climate action plans. Comprehensive approaches were also being developed to promote low-emission urban development and mechanisms were identified to improve the national and local integration of mitigation measures. The project employed an administrative, climate protection city advisor in each of the participating cities to integrate internal and external interest groups, facilitate as knowledge transfer to other cities. Instruments for greenhouse gas balancing and the management of monitoring, reporting and verification measures (MRV) were developed together with the cities. As part of the Corona Response Package the project identified measures that create green jobs and contribute to low-carbon and resilient urban development These were then prioritised in the development of climate action plans.

Project data

Countries: Ivory Coast, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania
IKI funding: 3,664,786.08 €
Duration: 03/2017 till 12/2021
Status: completed
Implementing organisation: C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group
Political Partner: Accra Metropolitan Assembly (Department for Budget and Rating) - Ghana

Autonomous District of Abidjan (Directorate of legal affairs and international relations) - Ivory Coast

City of Cape Town (Energy and Climate Unit) - South Africa

City of Dakar (Department of Planning and Sustainable Development - DPDD) - Senegal

City of Johannesburg (Air Quality Climate Change & Energy) - South Africa

City of Tshwane (Sustainability Office and the Economic Development Department Mitigation Programmes) - South Africa

Dar Es Salam City Council (Public Relations and Protocol Unit) - Tanzania

Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) - South Africa

Environmental Protection Agency - Ghana

Federal Ministry of Environment - Nigeria

Lagos State Government

Ministry for Environment and Sustainable Development (MEDD) - Senegal

Ministry of Environment and Forestry - Kenya*

Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development - Ivory Coast

Nairobi City County (Water, Energy, Forestry, Environment and Natural Resources) - Kenya

The Vice-President's Office - Tanzania
Online: http://www.c40.org/

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State of implementation/results

Project completed.
Regional Coordinator and technical team in place supporting nine City Advisers in all partner cities (Abidjan, Accra, Dakar, Dar-es-Salaam, Johannesburg, Kapstadt, Lagos, Nairobi, Tshwane).
First Regional Academy and Project Launch held in Lagos, Nigeria, 15 May 2018.
Second Regional Academy held in Johannesburg, South Africa, 30 July – 1 August 2019.
26 in-city capacity development workshops delivered to date in all partner cities. Workshops developed capacities on GHG inventories, emission scenario planning, climate action identification and prioritisation, climate action detailing and climate action implementation planning.
Strategic appraisals on climate action completed for all cities, and associated country reports completed.
GPC compliant city-wide GHG inventories completed in all cities.
Climate action for URBan sustainability (CURB) tool updated, more user-friendly version (known as the Pathways tool), and has been used for ambitious emissions reduction scenario planning in all partner cities.
Green Recovery Aspects integrated into Climate Action Plans.
Eight partner cities (Accra, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Tshwane, Dakar, Lagos, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam) have finalised their climate action plans and started endorsement and official launch of the plans since 2020.

Latest Update:
12/2025