This article studies eight cities in four countries in the southern African region (Namibia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Botswana) to explore whether and how local governing authority has been channelled towards local climate-resilient development. The authors undertook a desk-based identification and review of available primary and secondary legal sources and normative documents while also drawing on scientific papers and policy documents for statistics and information about urbanization, climate change, politics, and governance in the selected countries. The analysis is interested in the law but is not strictly of a legal nature in the sense that the authors did not aim for a critical analysis of the regulatory detail in the relevant legal instruments. Instead, the article provides an evaluation of the political, de facto choices made by selected local governments as to how and to what extent to utilize their governing authority (legislative and executive) towards climate-resilient development. The authors explore if and how local government powers in the four southern African countries are currently leveraged for local climate action, and comment on the possible reasons for the status quo by comparing the four jurisdictions.

本文研究了南部非洲地区四个国家（纳米比亚、津巴布韦、南非和博茨瓦纳）的八个城市，探讨地方治理权力是否以及如何引导当地气候适应型发展。作者对现有的主要和次要法律来源和规范性文件进行了案头识别和审查，同时还利用科学论文和政策文件来获取有关选定国家的城市化、气候变化、政治和治理的统计数据和信息。该分析对法律感兴趣，但并不严格具有法律性质，因为作者的目的并不是对相关法律文书中的监管细节进行批判性分析。相反，本文对选定地方政府就如何以及在多大程度上利用其治理权力（立法和行政）实现气候适应型发展所做出的政治、事实上的选择进行了评估。作者探讨了四个南部非洲国家目前是否以及如何利用地方政府权力来开展当地气候行动，并通过比较四个司法管辖区来评论造成现状的可能原因。