The complex and multidimensional effect of climate change, coupled with low socioeconomic development, in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) makes the region vulnerable to the changing climate and threatens its inhabitants’ survival, livelihood, and health. Subnational actions have been widely acclaimed as effective in combatting climate change. Local governments in SSA have been developing and implementing climate action plans to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In this article, we qualitatively assessed climate change mitigation technical pathways at the city level by studying four major African megacities’ climate plans and actions. The cities studied are Accra, Ghana; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Lagos, Nigeria; and Nairobi, Kenya. This study provides insight into the novel and innovative policy design and instrumentation options to sustainably address climate change mitigation in SSA. With the past literature focusing on climate adaptation for the Global South, this study shows leading context-specific efforts in climate change mitigation that simultaneously address local sustainable development needs. Our assessment identified the prioritized technical pathways for climate change mitigation in the selected cities, as well as innovative techniques and areas for improvement. Given that it also identifies emerging best practices, this study’s findings can be helpful to local governments and practitioners pursuing local deep decarbonization and international organizations supporting these programs.

Deep decarbonization strategies at the local level have been extensively documented for cities in the Global North, yet little is known about how cities in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) pursue climate mitigation amid infrastructure constraints, limited fiscal autonomy, and pressing developmental needs. Local governments worldwide are recognized as critical actors in addressing urban greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, SSA cities’ decarbonization efforts remain underexplored in academic and policy discourse, despite the region’s acute climate vulnerability and rapid urbanization. However, SSA cities’ decarbonization efforts remain underexplored in academic and policy discourse, despite the region’s acute climate vulnerability and rapid urbanization. This study examines how deep decarbonization pathways in four leading SSA cities (Accra, Addis Ababa, Lagos, and Nairobi) compare with those in the Global North. Using qualitative methods including document analysis and semi-structured interviews, we examine the technical pathways, institutional strategies, governance mechanisms, and actors involved in these cities’ climate mitigation efforts. Our findings reveal that while SSA cities pursue similar technical priorities to Global North cities (renewable energy, building efficiency, sustainable transport), their approaches diverge significantly in implementation. SSA cities innovate through decentralized waste-to-energy systems adapted to informal contexts, rely heavily on donor funding rather than municipal bonds, and uniquely leverage traditional institutions for community engagement. Governance structures are predominantly top-down and centralized, contrasting with the polycentric, multi-level governance observed in the Global North. These findings demonstrate that deep decarbonization in SSA must be reconceptualized not only as a form of climate mitigation but as an integrated strategy that addresses infrastructure gaps and building institutional capacity. This research contributes new knowledge on urban climate governance in developing regions and offers transferable lessons for cities facing similar constraints.