Kiambu County is among the counties that are set to benefit as the national government launched a Sh7.2 billion County Climate Resilience Investment Grant.
The grant will be handed over at the local level to support community-resilient investments within individual counties.
According to Environment, Climate Change, and Forestry CS Soipan Tuya, adequate and predictable climate finance is key to the implementation of climate action.
Speaking during the launch of the Long-Term Low Emissions Development Strategy (LT-LEDS) and National Climate Change Action Plan 2023–2027 at the African Climate Summit that is being held in the country, Tuya said the climate action plan calls for enhanced resource mobilisation through bilateral, multilateral, and concessional funding.
The CS noted that the Financing Locally Led Climate Action Programme (FLLCA) approach the government is using is aligned with the Bottom Up Economic Approach (BETA) by targeting the vulnerable communities at the very bottom of the pyramid.
FLLCA is one of the attempts and has received crowd-funding from the World Bank, the governments of Germany, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Kenya to the tune of USD 295 million.
“Over 80 per cent of these funds will flow directly to our devolved units at the ward level to support local-level climate action,” she said.
Kiambu Water, Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources County Executive Committee Member (CECM) David Kuria last year said the FLLCA programme would increase Kiambu Counties’ capacity to respond to climate challenges while implementing locally driven initiatives for climate resilience.
“The initiative will concentrate on capitalising funds by developing county capacity in planning and implementing climate measures involving the citizenry through engagement in locally-led adaptation programmes that are effective and reach the most at-risk groups, which include women, youth, persons with disabilities, elders, and other traditionally marginalised groups.
During Monday’s inaugural summit meeting, the CS also launched the reviewed National Climate Change Action Plan III for 2023–2027, which commits to addressing climate change in the next five years.
Kenya enacted the Climate Change Act in 2016, but in order to make it responsive to the aspirations of the Paris Agreement on sustainable development and alleviation of poverty, the Act has been amended to capture a regulatory framework for carbon markets, which will ensure high integrity, high quality, and transparent engagements in the carbon market framework.
By Wangari Ndirangu
