Although industrialized nations clearly have a critical role to play in mitigating greenhouse gases and while adaptation should be the key priority for Southern African cities, expanding urban centres such as Gaborone, Harare and Maputo are generating increasing carbon emissions through their various energy intensive activities and they too need to accept a role in mitigation. Some local governments are beginning to recognize this. These are due to historically entrenched inequalities in terms of responsibilities for emissions, as well as income disparities." Poor urban households in RSA can spend up to 75 per cent of their budgets on food and energy alone.