Africa’s cities are growing rapidly, but so are the environmental challenges that come with that growth. From air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions to transportation, industrial activity, waste management and energy consumption, urban development is creating increasingly complex environmental realities.
But there is a challenge that receives far less attention: how cities collect, manage and use the data needed to understand that footprint. For many African cities, the problem isn’t necessarily the complete absence of environmental data. It is that the data can be fragmented across institutions, collected using different approaches and difficult to compare or translate into policy.
A 2024 study examining greenhouse gas inventories across African cities found that data scarcity and a lack of standardized protocols remain significant challenges, limiting the comparability and usefulness of emissions data.
And this matters because climate action starts with knowing what you are trying to change.
You can’t manage what you can’t consistently measure
The Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories (GPC), developed by the World Resources Institute, C40 Cities and ICLEI, provides a common framework for cities to measure and report their emissions.
The objective is bigger than simply producing an inventory. Standardised measurement allows cities to establish baselines, identify major sources of emissions, set reduction targets and track progress over time. (GHG Protocol)
For African cities, this consistency is particularly important. If one city measures emissions differently from another, comparing their progress becomes difficult. If data cannot be verified or tracked over time, it becomes harder to determine whether policies are actually working.
This is where Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) becomes critical.
From environmental data to environmental intelligence
Good environmental governance requires more than collecting numbers. Data needs to be structured, traceable, accessible and usable. An effective MRV system can help establish where emissions are coming from, create a reliable record of reported information and strengthen confidence in the data being used to inform decisions.
This is particularly relevant as cities tackle interconnected challenges such as air pollution, transportation, industrial activity, energy use and waste. UN-Habitat has similarly emphasised the need to integrate urban development, climate mitigation and sectoral policies when addressing air-quality challenges in African cities. (UN Habitat)
The goal, therefore, should be to move from simply collecting environmental data to building environmental intelligence—systems that allow governments to understand what the data means and use it to act.
Lagos is taking a step in that direction
The Lagos Greenhouse Gas Registry (LGHGR) provides an example of what this transition can look like. Powered by TPHG Technologies, Swanlux Limited and the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA), the Registry is designed to strengthen the way greenhouse gas emissions data is captured, managed and reported across Lagos.
For a rapidly growing megacity, having a more structured approach to emissions data can support stronger climate planning, greater transparency and more informed environmental decision-making. And this is ultimately the opportunity for African cities: not simply to have more data, but to build systems that make their data more useful.
As cities across the continent develop, the quality of their environmental decisions will increasingly depend on the quality of the information behind them. The future of climate governance will require cities to measure better, report more transparently and build systems that turn data into action.
That, perhaps, is where the next chapter of Africa’s environmental transformation begins.
