The landscape of city-level GHG emission accounts in Africa

Cities are important actors in the global challenge of tackling climate change. They are not only responsible for the majority of emissions but also highly capable of taking action. An important precondition for effective climate mitigation is a city-level greenhouse gas emission inventory to guide mitigation action. Yet, most cities in developing countries, in particular African cities, lack that crucial information. This study aims to assess the current state of the development of African cities' emission inventories. A total of 270 inventories from 137 cities across 54 African countries were identified from 15 research articles, 5 reports, and 3 data platforms. We find the lack of standardized protocols results in inventories that are often not comparable, while data scarcity emerged as a common problem. We observe that insufficient engagement from local governments impedes the creation of a data-rich environment. Additionally, current inventory protocols do not fully address the data limitations faced by African cities, further hindering inventory development. To mitigate these challenges, multi-agent collaboration is essential to enhance the accounting capabilities of local governments. Developing refined protocols that consider data constraints is necessary. Moreover, advanced technologies may provide opportunities to overcome data bottlenecks.