International
Climate Initiative (IKI)

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

As of: December 2019

Objective and activities

This project aims to: a) build technical capacity within nine African cities to develop long-term climate action plans, b) develop an innovative, consistent and comprehensive approach to a transformative city low carbon development, c) identify mechanisms to facilitate better national and local integration of climate mitigation activities. A key focus on this project is to embed a C40 City Advisor in cities to act as a focal point for long-term climate action planning, engage internal and external stakeholders,facilitate knowledge transfer across the region, and ensure sustainability after the project duration. A series of in-city workshops will be held for all cities, complemented by regional workshops, to build capacity and enable peer interaction. Tools and resources – underpinned by existing city practices and international GHG and MRV approaches – will be developed in collaboration with the cities. This includes action planning frameworks and a GHG emission projection tool.

State of implementation/results

• Regional coordinator and project manager in South Africa coordinate regional project
• All nine C40 City Advisors have commenced work
• Regional C40 Climate Action Planning Africa Programme Workshop held in Lagos, Nigeria 15 May 2018 with large participation
• Second regional workshop held from 30 July to 1 August 2019 in Johannesburg
• 11 workshops held in eight partner cities Nairobi, Johannesburg, Accra, Tshwane, Dakar, Cape Town, Dar es Salaam and Lagos, focus on training on greenhouse gas inventories, emission scenario planning, assessment of opportunities for transformative climate action in partner cities
• Strategic climate change assessments completed in eight cities
• Climate action for URBan sustainability (CURB) tool updated, more user-friendly version (Pathways) used for scenario planning in partner cities
• GPC compliant GHG inventories finalised in seven cities
• planning framework for climate change mitigation measures developed to support cities in developing climate change plans (1.5 degree target) in the sense of the Paris Agreement