Report on Urban Climate Action and Sustainable Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

This report analyzes the climate and energy action plans of 17 municipalities in Sub-Saharan Africa participating in the Covenant of Mayors for Sub-Saharan Africa (CoM SSA). It assesses their contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), and SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), through an integrated analysis of their mitigation, adaptation, and energy access strategies.

Alignment with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

The climate action plans developed by Sub-Saharan African municipalities demonstrate a strong commitment to localizing the 2030 Agenda. These plans, known as Sustainable Energy Access and Climate Action Plans (SEACAPs), provide a framework for integrating global goals into local policy. The core pillars of the SEACAPs directly address several SDGs:

• SDG 13 (Climate Action): Addressed through greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets and climate adaptation strategies.
• SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy): Targeted through specific goals for improving access to electricity and clean cooking solutions.
• SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities): Advanced by building urban resilience, improving infrastructure, and promoting sustainable planning.
• SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals): Embodied by the CoM SSA initiative itself, which fosters multi-level governance and collaboration between local, national, and international actors.

Furthermore, these actions create co-benefits for other goals, including SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being), and SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), by addressing the interconnected challenges of climate vulnerability, energy poverty, and urban development.

Analysis of Climate Mitigation Efforts (SDG 13)

H3: Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Reduction Targets

The analysis of municipal Baseline Emission Inventories (BEIs) reveals that per capita GHG emissions are among the lowest globally, ranging from 0.062 to 2.512 tCO2eq/person. Despite this, the municipalities demonstrate significant ambition in contributing to SDG 13.

1. Ambitious Local Targets: Fourteen of the 17 municipalities have set mitigation targets for 2030 that are either equal to or more ambitious than their respective Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). This highlights the critical role of local governments in driving national and global climate action.
2. Emission Reduction Pathways: While rapid urbanization and population growth are projected to increase total emissions in some cities, seven municipalities are on a trajectory to decrease both overall and per-capita emissions by 2030, showcasing pathways for decoupling growth from emissions.
3. Sectoral Focus: The primary sources of emissions are stationary energy, transport, and waste. Mitigation actions are designed to target these key sectors, contributing directly to the targets of SDG 13.

Analysis of Climate Adaptation and Resilience (SDG 11 & SDG 13)

H3: Risk and Vulnerability Assessments

All 17 municipalities conducted a Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (RVA) to identify climate threats, a foundational step for building resilience in line with SDG 11.b and SDG 13.1.

• Identified Climate Hazards: The most frequently identified hazards with high impact and probability are extreme heat, heavy precipitation, floods, and droughts. These risks directly threaten urban infrastructure, public health, and economic stability.
• Vulnerable Sectors: The sectors identified as most vulnerable include buildings, public health, agriculture and forestry, and water resources. This highlights the cross-cutting impact of climate change on essential services and livelihoods, linking adaptation efforts to SDG 3 (Good Health), SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), and SDG 6 (Clean Water).
• Alignment with National Priorities: Municipalities have aligned their identified hazards and vulnerable sectors with those outlined in their NDCs, ensuring that local adaptation planning supports national resilience strategies.

H3: Adaptation Goals

Municipalities have translated their risk assessments into concrete adaptation goals, demonstrating a commitment to proactive resilience-building.

• Qualitative and Quantitative Goals: Cities have set a mix of qualitative (e.g., improving institutional capacity) and quantitative (e.g., reducing the number of people affected by floods) goals. Smaller municipalities tend to favor quantitative targets, suggesting a focus on measurable outcomes and accountability.
• Targeted Interventions: Adaptation goals are designed to protect the most vulnerable sectors, such as implementing early warning systems for public health (SDG 3) and developing resilient water management systems (SDG 6).

Analysis of Energy Access Efforts (SDG 7)

H3: Electricity Access Targets

Improving energy access is a central pillar of the SEACAPs, directly contributing to SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy).

1. Baseline and Ambition: Baseline electricity access varies widely, from 3% to over 90%. All municipalities have set ambitious targets for 2030, with 14 projected to surpass the 2022 Sub-Saharan Africa urban average access rate.
2. Gap to Universal Access: Despite significant progress, six municipalities are projected to fall short of the SDG 7 target of universal access by 2030, highlighting the persistent challenges related to infrastructure, affordability, and institutional capacity.

H3: Clean Cooking Access Targets

Addressing the lack of access to clean cooking is a critical component of achieving a just energy transition and yields significant co-benefits for health and gender equality.

1. Significant Challenges: Access to clean cooking is a greater challenge than electricity access, with baseline levels as low as 0.6% in some areas.
2. Ambitious Goals but Persistent Gaps: While cities have set ambitious improvement targets, nine are projected to have a significant access gap by 2030. This underscores the need for integrated policies that address technological, financial, and behavioral barriers.
3. Co-benefits for other SDGs: Increasing access to clean cooking directly supports SDG 3 by reducing household air pollution and SDG 5 (Gender Equality) by lessening the time burden on women and girls for fuel collection.

Planned Interventions and Implementation Challenges

H3: Typology of Climate Actions

Municipalities have planned a balanced portfolio of actions across mitigation, adaptation, and energy access. A high degree of integration is evident, with over 50% of actions designed to deliver benefits across multiple pillars, thereby maximizing synergies between SDGs.

• Physical and Technological Measures: These actions, such as infrastructure upgrades and renewable energy installations, are the most common, accounting for 45% of all planned interventions.
• Knowledge and Governance Measures: Actions focused on knowledge sharing, capacity building, and institutional reform are also prominent, comprising 32% and 20% of interventions, respectively. These are crucial for creating an enabling environment for sustainable development.
• Economic and Financial Measures: These actions are the least common (3%), indicating a significant gap in leveraging financial instruments to support climate and energy goals.

H3: Funding and Capacity Gaps

The successful implementation of SEACAPs and the achievement of related SDGs are constrained by significant challenges.

• Financing Climate Action: While some municipalities have identified potential funding sources, a major barrier remains the lack of sufficient and accessible finance. The total estimated investment required for just six of the cities is €522 million, with the majority allocated to physical infrastructure.
• Need for Partnerships (SDG 17): Overcoming these financial and capacity gaps requires stronger partnerships between local governments, national authorities, international development partners, and the private sector. Strengthening these collaborations is essential to scale up urban climate action and accelerate progress towards the SDGs.

Analysis of Sustainable Development Goals in the Article

1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

The article discusses issues that are directly and indirectly connected to several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The analysis of Sustainable Energy Access and Climate Action Plans (SEACAPs) in Sub-Saharan African municipalities touches upon the core themes of energy, climate, urban development, and the underlying socio-economic vulnerabilities.

• SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy: This is one of the three main pillars of the study. The article extensively analyzes municipal efforts and sets targets for “access to electricity and access to clean cooking,” which are central to SDG 7.
• SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities: The study is fundamentally about urban climate governance, focusing on how “17 Sub-Saharan African municipalities are addressing climate change.” It examines their action plans (SEACAPs), infrastructure resilience, and efforts to create sustainable urban environments, which aligns directly with the goals of SDG 11.
• SDG 13: Climate Action: This is a core theme of the article. The entire study revolves around analyzing how municipalities are tackling “climate change mitigation, adaptation, and energy access.” It assesses greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, reduction targets, and adaptation strategies to climate hazards.
• SDG 1: No Poverty: The article’s introduction establishes a clear link between climate vulnerability and socio-economic factors, stating that vulnerability is compounded by “widespread poverty.” Addressing climate impacts and improving energy access are presented as integrated actions that can help build resilience for the poor.
• SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being: The article connects climate vulnerability to “poor health outcomes.” Furthermore, the push for “access to clean cooking” directly addresses a major source of indoor air pollution, which has significant negative health impacts. The analysis also identifies the “health” sector as being highly vulnerable to climate hazards.
• SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation: The Risk and Vulnerability Assessments (RVAs) conducted by the municipalities identified “droughts and water scarcity” as a major climate hazard. The “water” sector is also listed as one of the most vulnerable, indicating that municipal adaptation plans address issues central to SDG 6.
• SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals: The article highlights the importance of collaboration. The “Covenant of Mayors for Sub-Saharan Africa (CoM SSA)” initiative itself is a multi-stakeholder partnership. The analysis also points to the need for aligning local plans with national policies (NDCs) and securing funding from “international financing from development agencies or international organisations” and “public-private partnerships.”

2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

Based on the specific actions, goals, and assessments discussed in the article, several SDG targets can be identified:

1. Target 7.1: By 2030, ensure universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services.
   • The article directly addresses this by analyzing municipal goals for “access to electricity” and “access to clean cooking.” It explicitly compares these local targets to the “SDG7 objective of achieving universal access” (100% of the population).
2. Target 11.6: By 2030, reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management.
   • The study analyzes the “per capita emissions (tCO2eq/person)” for each municipality, both for a baseline year and a target year, directly addressing the goal of reducing the per capita environmental impact. The mention of “waste” as a key GHG emitting sector also relates to this target.
3. Target 11.b: By 2020, substantially increase the number of cities and human settlements adopting and implementing integrated policies and plans towards inclusion, resource efficiency, mitigation and adaptation to climate change, resilience to disasters…
   • The article’s entire focus is on analyzing the “Sustainable Energy Access and Climate Action Plans (SEACAPs),” which are described as integrated plans covering “mitigation, adaptation, and energy access.” The study itself documents the adoption and content of these plans in 17 municipalities.
4. Target 13.1: Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries.
   • This is demonstrated through the analysis of the “Risks and Vulnerability Assessment (RVA)” conducted by all 17 municipalities. They identify and prioritize climate hazards like “extreme heat,” “heavy precipitation,” “floods,” and “droughts” and set adaptation goals to strengthen their resilience.
5. Target 13.2: Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning.
   • The article explicitly analyzes this integration by comparing the municipalities’ GHG “mitigation targets” with the “Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) target of their respective country.” It shows that most local plans are aligned with or more ambitious than national plans.
6. Target 1.5: By 2030, build the resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations and reduce their exposure and vulnerability to climate-related extreme events…
   • The article links climate vulnerability to “widespread poverty” and the “growth of informal settlements.” The adaptation actions planned in the SEACAPs, which target vulnerable sectors and populations, are a direct effort to build the resilience mentioned in this target.

3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

Yes, the article mentions several quantitative and qualitative indicators that are used by the municipalities in their SEACAPs to assess their status and measure progress.

• For Target 7.1 (Universal Energy Access):
  • Indicator 7.1.1 (Access to electricity): The article explicitly uses the “proportion of population with access to electricity” as a key metric. Figures 7 presents this data as a percentage for both a baseline year and a 2030 target year for each municipality.
  • Indicator 7.1.2 (Access to clean cooking): Similarly, the “proportion of population with access to clean cooking” is used. Figure 8 shows the baseline and 2030 target percentages for clean cooking access.
• For Target 11.6 (Reduce per capita impact of cities):
  • Implied Indicator (GHG Emissions per capita): The article uses “per capita emissions (tCO2eq/person)” as a key indicator to compare municipalities and track changes between the baseline and target years (Figure 3). This serves as a direct measure of the per capita environmental impact in terms of climate change.
• For Target 11.b (Integrated policies and plans):
  • Indicator (Number of local governments with climate plans): The study itself is based on the existence of these plans. The number of municipalities (17) with developed SEACAPs is a direct indicator of progress.
  • Indicator (Degree of integration): The article measures the “percentage of actions that have an impact on multiple pillars (mitigation, adaptation, energy access),” which serves as a qualitative and quantitative indicator of how integrated the plans are.
• For Target 13.1 (Strengthen resilience):
  • Indicator (Existence of local DRR strategies): The completion of a “Risks and Vulnerability Assessment (RVA)” and the formulation of adaptation goals by all 17 municipalities serve as an indicator that local disaster risk reduction strategies are being implemented.
  • Indicator (Number and type of adaptation goals): The article analyzes whether adaptation goals are “qualitative or quantitative” and tracks the number of goals set per municipality (Figure 6), which can be used to measure the ambition and specificity of resilience-building efforts.
• For Target 13.2 (Integrate climate measures into policies):
  • Indicator (Alignment with national targets): The article provides a direct comparison of municipal “mitigation goal[s]” with the national “NDC” targets (Figure 4). The percentage difference between the local and national target is a clear indicator of integration and ambition.

4. Table of SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

Source: nature.com