Tag: Africa

C40 recently partnered with the Addis Ababa Road and Transport Bureau to deliver a two-day workshop to measure the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction benefits for Addis Ababa’s first Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system. A total of 18 representatives from the Addis Ababa Road and Transport Bureau, Transport Authority, Institute of Technology and the Environmental Protection Authority learned how to use available data and make assumptions to demonstrate the impact of BRT’s forecasted operations, construction and manufacturing on emissions.

My city, Accra, is one of the cities in Africa that is impacted by climate change. We are continuously experiencing both floods and droughts, and this has sometimes resulted in the loss of life. That’s why we have made a strong commitment to addressing climate change in our city. I joined forces with global mayors and signed up to the Compact of Mayors (now the Global Covenant of Mayors on Climate and Energy) because I believe that cities like Accra have an important role to play in achieving the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) that Ghana has pledged to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Mayors and delegates from 24 African capitals recently gathered in Tshwane for the Second African Capital Cities Sustainability Forum (ACCSF), a platform for mayors and senior city officials to discuss and spearhead sustainability in their cities. 

“The ACCSF creates a platform for African Capital Cities to identify and deliberate on commonalities and challenges faced by major cities in Africa while showcasing and sharing successful initiatives towards the emergence of truly African, original and appropriate solutions in addressing the sustainability imperative at the urban scale,” said Executive Mayor of Tshwane Kgosientso Ramokgopa during the Forum’s opening remarks.

Better, more productive models of urban development are critical for rapidly growing cities in the developing world, and in Africa in particular. How African cities assimilate the 22 million people that will be added to their number every year for the next three decades will determine the continent’s prospects. Africa’s urban population is set to triple between 2010 and 2050, reaching 1.34 billion people. The trend is fastest in East and West Africa - the population of Lagos is expected to top 25 million in the next 15 years – but common to all regions.