Abstract

The paper is anchored on the argument that cities contribute to global warming and climate change through the interaction of urban morphological factors, notably the development density, distribution of land uses, building configuration, nature of the construction materials used in the city, the amount of vegetation within the city, the utility of public transportation, vehicular traffic volume, industrialization, and energy consumption in the city, which influence the occurrence of urban heat island effects and greenhouse gas emissions to compromise the air quality and surface temperatures. Therefore, global warming and climate change are significant challenges portended by urbanization and have led to increased occurrences of drought oscillating with floods, 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 centers already experiencing a plethora of infrastructure inadequacies. Experience from the global south corroborates that mitigation and adaptation to climate change are challenges at the urban level due to socioeconomic conditions accentuated by insufficient regional and national assistance rendered to urban authorities. This paper therefore announces the African urban climate change mitigation and adaptation scenarios and further discusses the challenges the nations and cities in the global south face in mainstreaming climate change in the national urbanization agenda. To anchor the arguments, a concise review of literature and policy documents on climate change as informed by urban management practices in the global south is undertaken. Finally, the papers reflect on observations regarding the challenges posed by the mitigation strategies and propose ways forward for mainstreaming climate change in the urban sustainability agenda.