[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.5.8″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”0px|||||”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.5.8″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”|190px||||”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.5.8″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_image src=”http://jmsstudentswebsites.ru.ac.za/design/simamkelegeorge/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2020/10/yonko-kilasi-juex154AuVA-unsplash.jpg” title_text=”yonko-kilasi-juex154AuVA-unsplash” force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.5.8″ _module_preset=”default”][/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.5.8″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”20px||||false|false”]

Africa faces the twin challenge of ensuring improved environmental quality and a climate resilient economy in the post Paris era. The engine expected to drive Africa’s decarbonisation is the city, with its large population accounting for 40 per cent of the total population. Unfortunately, urban centres are still locked into a dirty carbon development path. With the population of Africa projected to rise to about 2 billion people by 2050, the consequential impact on water, energy, food and climate security in cities will be immense. Critically, migration to cities is outstripping the ability of the existing infrastructure to cope, hence pollution is inevitable.

Urban centres are part of the crisis and they will equally play a critical role in resolving the problem. However, charting a middle ground between economic needs and environmental quality poses a complex problem. Nevertheless, overcoming this complexity is critical to urban centres’ transition towards the Green City. How Africa as a continent makes cities work for all (most especially the urban poor) while eco-efficiently realising a low carbon and climate resilient economy will determine the success of the Paris Agreement.

But what is a green city, we may ask?

The term “Green City” is a physical attribute as well as a state of being emphasising the transformation of urban areas/dwellers towards environmentally benign and eco-efficient utilisation of resources in a manner that results in less pollution. It strives to place the environmental matrix at the foreground of all changes in cities by charting a path towards an eco-efficient and eco-sufficient utilisation of the living space, which will make it capable of remedying environmental externalities.

This is the theory—which is not tenable in the context of continuous neoliberal rationalisation. The concept of the “green city” is mainly based on economic and environmental sustainability within the framework of neoliberal urbanism, and disregards the social component. It amplifies the free market tenet of economics, transferring it to green infrastructure development and hence projecting corporate interest.

Overcoming urban inequality, fragmentation and spatial segregation is absolutely critical if the green city is to offer a sustainable urban future for all. It is thus crucial to make the social sustainability perspective its central component. Tackling this issue would require proffering multi-sectoral policies that allow the poorest population to utilise all the benefits of a green city.

Building Africa’s green cities face a number of constraints

There is a plethora of challenges stymieing green cities’ role as capable of fostering eco-efficiency in the post-Paris era. Some of these barriers include: Governance deficit, lack of a green city strategy, top-bottom approach, absence of local anchorage and a home-grown green growth vision, poverty, skewed demographic change, migration, institutional debilities, infrastructural deficit, decline in public funding, paucity of funding, climate change, inadequate green job market, inadequate service provision, weak public transport network, inadequate waste disposal, land use changes, inferior and inaccessible building technologies and political constraints. Unarguably, the woes beleaguering the development of green cities are endless. Hence, overcoming the barriers to fast-track green growth in cities requires urgent and substantial transformations.

Examples of African cities on the path to green development

A major step is to develop green city agriculture in gardens, on rooftops, in vacant space and on hydroponic farms¹ in order to reduce the effects of the urban heat island² and also act as a sink function³. Efficient transportation system will reduce undue reliance on fossil fuel if light rails, fuel efficient (electric) cars, stricter standards for passenger and cargo transport, improvement in urban transit, and purchase of hybrid vehicles with efficient fuel usage are encouraged⁴.

Efficient transportation

 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in the form of a newly constructed light rail⁵ is a most notable instance of reducing the city’s ecological footprint through the proactive devolution of technology. Similarly, the Lagos State government in Nigeria is championing the drive towards the clean city by enshrining clean transport pathways in the city’s development blueprint. Private-public partnerships (PPPs) are still critical to green transformation as they can promote Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) needed for reordering priorities toward clean energy services. For example, waste disposal in Lagos State, Nigeria is handled by Visionscape, an environmental utility group that has taken over the management of waste as part of a new PPP arrangement. The group is leading a new government initiative named the Cleaner Lagos Initiative⁶ (CLI)⁷.

[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]