T he City of Cocody, located north of Abidjan on the coast of Côte d’Ivoire, released its Green City Plan in 2017, pledging to reduce carbon emissions 70% by 2030 to combat climate change. The city established the pledge to complement efforts to achieve the national goal of 42% renewable electricity generation by 2030, as put forward in Côte d’Ivoire‘s 2016 Nationally Determined Contribution towards reducing emissions under the Paris Agreement. Achieving the city’s emissions reduction target will be challenging due to Cocody’s rising energy demand, which is caused largely by rapid urban development and economic growth.

Cocody Green City is an ambitious plan that aims to minimise local greenhouse gas emissions while also creating 100,000 direct jobs and 400,000 indirect jobs, promoting women’s empowerment and increasing citizen participation in adopting sustainable living. This community-based climate action plan aims to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 90% by 2030, using renewable energy and carbon sequestration efforts. The city has set up a Reforestation and Carbon Sequestration Program that includes the development of green spaces and the restoration and replanting of 2 million mangrove trees to protect local climate health.

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The Green City plan takes a holistic approach towards upgrading energy use and generation, transport, habitat restoration and land use, conservation and protection of water resources, community sensitisation and adoption. As of 2017, 23 measures were under development, including using solar energy to power large public buildings, installing 5,000 solar lamp posts, installing 1,600 solar traffic lights at 400 crossroads and supplying 200,000 solar PV power kits to households. Other measures to reduce carbon emissions include distributing to households 300,000 efficient cook stoves that run on ethanol procured locally from sugarcane manufacturers, producing 1,000 solar dryers for community women, distributing solar water heaters and setting up four wind farms on the banks of Ebrie lagoon.

The Cocody Green City plan also emphasises the development of sustainable transport and mobility plans through a Transport Demand Management scheme that aims to remove 1,000 old vehicles annually from city roads to improve local air quality and eliminate some 50 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. In addition, a used vehicle repair centre has been created to provide 100,000 catalytic exhaust systems for polluting vehicles.

Source: See endnote 36 in the Markets and Infrastructure chapter.