Environmentalists in Lamu have called for a stop to all non-renewable energy investments around the globe including the intended establishment of a coal plant in the county.
Under Save Lamu and the Voices for Just Climate Action, they expressed concern over the threats of increased carbon emissions around the world which are largely contributed by the continued burning of fossils.
The situation, they say, has resulted in the lack of rains and the persistent drought spells in most parts of Kenya and around the world.
Speaking in Lamu on Wednesday during a peaceful demonstration to protest the same, the environmentalists going by the theme "Betrayal to Our Mother Nature" called for a global unity to stop all such investments to reverse any negative climate change impacts recorded so far.
This comes against a backdrop of the ongoing 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP26, which is being held at the SEC Centre in Glasgow, Scotland, the United Kingdom from October 31 to November 12.
The summit is poised to be one of the most consequential climate events since the negotiation of the Paris Agreement in 2015, and pushes building a more sustainable, resilient and zero-carbon future.
In June 2019, the National Environmental Tribunal revoked a license that had been issued for the Sh200 billion Lamu coal-fired power plant amidst environmental safety concerns.
The plant had been projected to produce 1,050 megawatts of power once in place and was to be established in Hindi area in Lamu West, under the sponsorship of Amu Power Company, a consortium of Gulf Energy and Centum Investment.
The environmentalists reiterated that burning fossils like coal posed a huge threat to biodiversity and general climate change.
Is’haq Khatib of Save Lamu said summits like COP26 can only achieve sustainability if climate and development are integrated.
He said there is need to identify proper projects at country level that tackle mitigation and adaptation after which appropriate sources and structures of financing should be channelled towards such projects in a manner that maximises impact.
“As the world considers ways to ramp up climate finance, it’s critical to develop high-impact projects, and to consider the parameters of the exchange between providers and users of climate capital,” Khatib said.
Voices for Just Climate Action project assistant Mohamed Athman urged world leaders congregated at the Glasgow, to work smart and fulfil their promises, adding that the world is currently catastrophically far from the crucial goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius, yet the governments everywhere are still accelerating the crisis by spending billions on fossil fuels.
“World leaders must face up to the climate emergency now. We need to keep the precious goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius alive with immediate, drastic, annual emission reductions unlike anything the world has ever seen,” Athman said.
Raya Famau of the Lamu Women Alliance called upon women leaders to stand firm in their decree against any forces contributing to environmental degradation.
She called on world leaders to end all fossil fuel investments, subsidies, and new projects immediately, and to stop new exploration and extraction.
“We are calling for the enactment of strict climate policies to protect workers and the most vulnerable and reduce all forms of inequality. This is our message to those in Glasgow. You can stop all these,” Famau said.
The COP26 climate conference is the latest in a series of nearly annual meetings where countries try to overcome their differences and rise to the challenge of climate change.
The goal of the conference is to get the world committed to a downward slope in total greenhouse gas emissions.
Signatories agreed to limit global warming this century to less than two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures, with a higher target of staying below 1.5°C.
-Edited by SKanyara
