He said it would also help to identify mechanisms to facilitate better national and local integration of climate mitigation activities.Mr Sowah gave the advice in a statement issued by the Public Relations Office of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly and copied to the Ghana News Agency on Wednesday.

This was after the launch of the C40 Climate Action Planning Africa Programme in Lagos, Nigeria on Tuesday to support nine sub-Saharan megacities namely; Accra, Addis Ababa, Cape Town, Dakar, Dar es Salaam, Durban, Johannesburg, Lagos and Tshwane to enable them to deliver bold climate action plan under the Paris Agreement.

Mr Sowah called for support in the area of capacity building to ensure long-term improvement on emissions reporting, scenario modelling, and identification of transformative mitigation and adaptation actions to deal with climate change.

He touched on the need to integrate local actions at the national level through a robust and agreeable framework to deal with climate change. Mr Sowah, who is also the C40 Vice-Chair for Africa, expressed gratitude to the Germany Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety for its support in the initiative while thanking the implementing partners for the preparatory work.

The C40 Climate Action Planning Africa Programme is part of the International Climate Initiative.

The programme was designed in collaboration with climate experts from Ricardo Energy & Environment who will work closely with the cities to develop their action plans and support greater vertical integration between city and national government climate strategies.It is expected to provide direct support to 11 African cities in developing unprecedented robust and evidence-based long-term climate action plans that align with the ambitious objectives of the Paris Agreement.

The support will include a dedicated City Advisor based in each city, a series of workshops, and access to expert technical advice as needed. Nairobi and Abidjan have also joined the programme and are anticipated to submit their climate action commitments soon. The discussants on the panel underscored the need to catalyze greater and more transparent contributions of cities to the international climate agenda, while at the same time addressing local climate change issues that impact on the social and economic wellbeing of urban residents in Africa.

They emphasised the need to support the cities to identify new, innovative and transformative activities to support local climate action to make African cities sustainable and resilient.