The Imperatives in Mainstreaming Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in Urban Management Practices: African Perspectives

Abstract

This paper is anchored on argument that cities contribute to global warming and climate change through the interaction of the urban morphological factors notably; the development density, distribution of land uses, building configuration, nature of the construction materials used in the city and the amount of vegetation within the city, the utility of public transportation, vehicular traffic volume, industrialisation and energy consumption in the city, all of which influence the occurrence of urban heat island effects and greenhouse gas emissions to compromise  the air quality and surface temperatures. Therefore, urbanisation is a significant factor contributing to global warming and climate change, leading to heightened drought and flood prevalence, heat waves, sea level rise, increased pest invasions, disease incidences, food insecurity and occurrences of extreme weather events. This is likely to lead to population displacement with the hosts being urban centres already experiencing infrastructure inadequacies. Experience from Africa corroborate that mitigation and adaptation to climate change is a challenge at the urban level due to socioeconomic conditions accentuated by insufficient regional and national assistance rendered to urban authorities. The paper therefore annunciates the African urban climate change mitigation and adaptation scenarios and further discuss the challenges the nations and cities in Africa face in mainstreaming climate change in the national urbanization agenda. To anchor the arguments and to propose strategies for mainstreaming climate change in the urban sustainability agenda, concise review of literature and policy documents on climate change as informed by the urban management practices in Africa is undertaken.