Covenant of Mayors Office for Sub-Saharan Africa (CoMO SSA)

By 2050, the urban population in Africa is expected to grow from 400 million to 1.26 billion people. African cities need to respond to these challenges in order to provide a sustainable future for their citizens and keep greenhouse gas emissions low. Therefore, ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy and adapting to the effects of climate change are among the most pressing issues for the African population.

In this context, the European Commission launched the “Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa” (CoM SSA) to support African cities with these challenges, by increasing their planning capacities and providing them with a platform to share knowledge and best practices. The CoM SSA is inspired by the success of the “Covenant of Mayors Europe” (CoM Europe) that united 6700 municipalities in their fight against climate change. 

Under the CoM SSA initiative local authorities are invited to make a voluntarily political commitment to implement climate and energy actions in their communities and agree on a long‐term vision to tackle 3 pillars, namely access to energy, mitigation and adaptation.

In  order  to  translate  the  political  commitment  into  practical  measures,  CoM  SSA  signatories  commit  to  produce  and  implement  a  Sustainable  Energy  Access  and  Climate  Action  Plan  (SEACAP).