The plethora of climate policies, strategies and action plans in Southern African countries are ideologically oriented, shaped and informed by the neoliberal leaning international climate governance system. This neoliberal system, mediated through the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement, is widely criticized for unenforceable conventions and protocols as well as its lackadaisical approach in confronting geospatially unequal and inequitable impacts of the climate crisis in Africa. These weaknesses of the international climate governance system are reproduced in the fve Southern African countries discussed here. In all of them, there is an abundance of blue prints on mitigation, adaptation and resilience yet little or inconsequential practical programme implementation at local level where the vulnerable, poor and marginalized continue to toil in the face of the climate crisis. What explains this lack of, or inadequate, climate-resilient development at the local level emanates from the preoccupation with developing unrealistic climate action policies and strate gies. These impractical climate action plans are also divorced from the existential realities of the poor and marginalized and thus fail to address their underlying drivers of vulnerability, social and climate injustice. It is ironic that this infated climate action ambition is not accompanied by clear prioritization of mitigation, adaptation and resilience building into mainstream national development goals. Instead, climate action is planned for, at the policy level, as an afterthought. It also doesn’t help that the glossy blueprints are not accompanied by climate fnancing budget commitments. Without climate fnancing, there is no realistic possibility of these countries meaningfully transitioning to renewable energy sources, rolling out climate-resilient agriculture systems, enhancing biodiversity and ecosystems conservation, urban resilience building or climate proofng public and private infrastructure. Ultimately, it will take transformational climate leadership within these countries to place realization of social justice for the poor and vulnerable at the centre of climate action. Without such climate leadership, distributive and procedural justice will continue to elude them as long as state and non-state actors in Southern Africa continue to pay lip service to the climate crisis.