water, food, waste and transport are all key thematic areas for greening and sustainability in African cities. Energy Local renewable energy sources such as biomass, solar radiation, hydropower and wind are all abundant in Africa. Decentralizing and diversifying energy markets, and improving off-grid resilience, are likely avenues through which energy transitions in African cities can take place. For example, especially Central Africa has immense hydropower potential, which if developed, can provide in excess of 40,000 MW of energy, enough to power Africa and much of Europe. Moreover, Africa’s current main source of energy is biomass, which represents an opportunity to harness renewable energy biomass technologies that convert waste to energy, as well as to compost nutrient-rich material to close nutrient loops to improve soil fertility. Decentralized renewable energy security technologies (e.g. biogas digesters, solar water heater geysers, solar photovoltaic panels), energy retrofits (e.g. energy-efficient wood-fuel and solar cookers, green and white roofs, home insulation and appliance energy-saving technologies), wind turbines and smart design principles (e.g. densification strategies) can help ensure local resilience to the cost and availability of energy from centralized systems (see Box 1.7). Boosting efficiency is the key to achieving urban electrical energy security.152 It has been estimated that a 29 per cent reduction in baseline emissions can be achieved at zero cost in the building energy efficiency sector.153 Hence, the chance to engage funding opportunities in the low-carbon development sector can also be seized to catalyse the transition of African cities to higher levels of building energy efficiency. However, centralized systems are also required to improve energy efficiency, especially where mobility is concerned (see Box 1.8). Mass transit systems typically make a huge difference to urban energy efficiency and are large employers. Indian Railways, for instance, is the largest employer in the world. How cities make large-scale transport infrastructure design and planning choices over roads for vehicles, cycling routes, pedestrian access and mass public transport has obvious consequences for the energy efficiency footprint of the city. A critical element to energy transition in Africa is to convince centralized urban energy suppliers to embrace semidecentralization and decentralization by their continued participation in future energy markets. The growth of the information and communications technology sector in Africa, for example, is restricted mainly by access to electricity.159 African cities have the opportunity to lead their national economies towards greater levels of energy sustainability and resilience, while at the same time developing the competences required to participate in and compete in the global renewable energy sector. Africa’s renewable energy resource potential is impressive on almost all fronts160 and cities can take the lead in developing this potential and, at the same time, improve their material sustainability in the long term.
THE STATE OF AFRICAN CITIES 2014
trajectories in Africa need to be rethought and recast so that the economic, social, ecological and infrastructural dimensions of sustainability are mutually ensured in development planning, with political stability acting as the source of integration and coordination.151 Urban development planning and governance regimes that focus only on guaranteeing material sustainability may run aground by widening inequalities, deepening poverty and political instability. Material sustainability is ultimately contingent on maintaining consumption profiles that remain within ecological, economic and social thresholds, while at the same time seeking to maintain sociocultural and economic stability. Cities can influence footprints due to high densities and potential for maximizing efficiencies through design and management of urban material flows such as goods, data, nutrients, people and money. To achieve urban material sustainability, it is critical to consider large- and small-scale infrastructure choices. Many African cities lack adequate formal infrastructure and service provision. Therefore they are best placed to adopt new options, whereas cities in developed countries are typically locked into existing infrastructures which they must retrofit. African cities thus need to seize opportunities to leapfrog to sustainable and resource-efficient urban designs, infrastructure, technology and service provision. How can Africa embrace a kind of urbanization that produces competitive cities that take advantage of the demographic dividend and ensure green growth? Green urban growth trajectories, if adopted now, can help enhancing the competitiveness of cities and their residents in the medium and long term. Such growth paths could be attained by reducing material use and ecological impact footprints; lowering short-term material costs and medium-to-long-term ecological ones. This can be achieved through investments and partnerships with regional and global agencies, as well as with local actors, civil society and non-governmental organizations, especially those which engage closely with youth development. The opportunities for green growth are numerous in African urban contexts, not least because of the large infrastructure deficits of many African cities. Infrastructure choices made today in African cities will lock them into patterns of behaviour for the medium to long term. Therefore, engaging with the infrastructure requirement of African cities in a global context of resource constraint and increased global economic and climate-related uncertainties will likely prove critical to the future sustainability and equitability of African cities. There is great potential to formulate localscale solutions that can improve living conditions in African cities through improved access to services and infrastructure, enhanced urban mobility and access to opportunities. Insitu development in slums and informal settlements can stimulate a transition to lower material use and to high efficiency standards. However, this requires that decentralized in-situ developments are coordinated for broader transition to sustainability by scaling up these developments. Energy,
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