A Comparative Legal Analysis of Urban Climate Mitigation and Adaptation in the Building Sector in Brazil, Germany, and South Africa

This article aims to contribute to the growing body of urban climate-governance research from a comparative legal perspective. It analyses the climate-related mitigation and adaptation efforts in the building sector of three cities: Cape Town (South Africa), Hamburg (Germany), and São Paulo (Brazil). We examine national, state, and local laws and policies with a focus on building-related energy, water, and green infrastructure. The comparative analysis reveals similarities and differences in multilevel building-related laws and policies that partly enhance and partly limit cities’ climate-mitigation and adaptation efforts. The study also carves out synergies, conflicts, and key challenges in building-related climate mitigation and adaptation at the city level and suggests how identified shortcomings could be overcome.