Paper short abstract:

Review of the state of the art on urban climate/environmental change adaptation, mitigation and transformation challenges in Africa's urban areas

Paper long abstract:

While rapid advances are now being made in understanding the current and likely future dynamics of urban environmental/climate change under different scenarios, the evidence base remains highly uneven. The most extensive and robust evidence exists for OECD countries and other selected hotspots. Our knowledge and understanding of the processes of change as they are already affecting many African urban areas, and will do so increasingly through this century, remain seriously inadequate and patchy. Not only does this lacuna represent a major academic opportunity to learn across the diversity of Africa's 54 countries straddling very different environmental and linguistic-cultural regions, but the ability to formulate and implement appropriate climate change mitigation (CCM) and adaptation (CCA) initiatives depends on appropriate evidence and understanding of the underlying drivers and processes.

In this context, this paper will offer a preliminary synthesis of the state of the art in respect of African urban areas (not just capital and megacities) emerging from a landmark workshop to be held at Royal Holloway, University of London in April 2013 as the winning bid in the 2012 Urban Studies Journal Seminar Series Competition. This meeting will draw together leading academics and others engaged in urban environmental/climate change research and practice in these different parts of Africa to share experiences and forge comparative perspectives that will enrich our understanding and open new horizons for urban change theory (from which other parts of the world will have much to learn) and relevant applied communities of practice.