Kenya has upped her national commitment, to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 32 percent from 30 percent, in her strategy to cope with the global warming phenomenon.
Environment and Climate Change Principal Secretary (PS), Eng. Festus Ngeno, says the State has submitted the ambitious revised Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), adding the country has also wrapped up a long term low GHG emissions development strategy (LTS) up to year 2050, with an eye on net zero target.
Eng. Ngeno said measures set out by the country to address climate action included an undertaking to conserve and restore 10.6 million hectares of degraded landscapes and ecosystems, through planting and nurturing 15 billion trees by 2032.
Speaking during a training for climate change units’ personnel drawn from government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in Naivasha, Eng. Ngeno said efforts to tackle climate action calls for an “all hands on the deck” approach that encompasses the participation of government entities at the national and counties level, as well as private sector actors and the entire citizenry.
He noted that addressing climate action is a costly affair, adding that the challenge of inadequate financial resources has been a hindrance for Kenya and other developing countries in effectively mounting climate change mitigation and adaptation initiatives.
Illustrating the huge financial outlay required for climate action, the PS cited implementation of the updated NDC, which he said, required an estimated US dollars 62 billion in funding of which 87 percent would be taken up by donors, adding as well that the long term low emissions strategy (LTS), would cost an estimated US dollars 170 billion to achieve.
Eng. Ngeno said to address the challenge posed by inadequate resources, the Government has with support from development partners initiated a programme on Financing Locally Led Climate Action (FLLoCA), to deliver locally led climate resilience actions and strengthen both the National and County governments’ capacity to manage climate risks.
The PS reiterated the need for a whole of government approach to combat the adverse effects of climate change, that have wreaked havoc on all sectors of the economy, resulting in a five percent loss in GDP annually.
“I am sure that all of you here must have been affected either directly or indirectly by climate change impacts in the last one year. We all witnessed the devastating droughts and floods that happened in the last one year,” Eng. Ngeno noted.
PS Ngeno said the World Meteorological Organisation(WMO) declared 2023, the warmest year breaking all previous records adding the impacts of Climate Change continued to be felt with the month of February 2024 touted as the hottest ever.
He said excess rains arising from climate change has spawned new strains of diseases in areas where they were previously unheard of and cited new malaria fevers reported in Marsabit and Wajir counties.
Eng. Ngeno reiterated the commitment by the State Department for Environment and Climate Change, to drive collective efforts to address the global challenge of climate change by various actors in the country.
By Kizito Maruti
