- The Nairobi City County Climate Change Management Bill, 2023, will be tabled for First Reading once MCAs return from recess next month.
- The Bill is sponsored by Deputy Minority leader and Nairobi South Ward MCA Waithera Chege.
Image: HANDOUT
The campaign to mitigate climate change has been taking shape not only in the country, but also across the world.
A lot of recent occurrences such as extreme heat, and wildfires in various parts of the world have been attributed to climate change.
In Kenya specifically, President William Ruto has been advocating for climate change mitigation even on international platforms.
Kenya will next week (September 4 – 8) host the Africa Climate Week and Summit at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre.
As the Kenyan capital will play host to the Africa Climate Summit, the Nairobi County Assembly is also expected to table a bill on climate change.
The Nairobi City County Climate Change Management Bill, 2023, will be tabled for First Reading once MCAs return from recess next month.
The Bill sponsored by Deputy Minority leader and Nairobi South Ward MCA Waithera Chege, seeks to provide the required legal framework to put in place county mitigation strategies and adaptive programmes to fight climate change.
“The purpose of this Act is to ensure Nairobi City County takes effective and timely action to contribute towards meeting the national obligations on climate change through facilitating the establishment of structures and systems for climate change adaptation, mitigation and financing of programmes and projects in the county,” the Bill reads in part.
This will be done by mainstreaming climate change matters into different sectors, coordinating financing of climate change adaptation and mitigation projects in communities, as well as facilitating community-initiated climate change projects.
It will also entail development and review of county climate change policy and legislative framework, regulation and management of all activities related to climate change. It will also provide for procedural and administrative matters and also coordinate collection and dissemination of climate change information and creation of awareness.
If adopted by the Nairobi County Assembly, the Bill seeks to form a steering committee which will be chaired by the governor to manage its activities.
The committee will be known as the Nairobi City County Climate Change Steering Committee.
It will also constitute the deputy governor as the vice chair and the CEC for the environment as the secretary of the committee.
Other members will include; CECs for Finance and Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, the County Commissioner or their representative and representatives from the private sector, civil society organisations and academia who will be nominated by the Commission for University Education.
The committee will also have a secretariat, which will comprise of members drawn from the directorate of environment within the county.
“A member of the County Climate Change Steering Committee shall hold office for three years and shall be eligible for a further term of three years only.”
Nairobi is among the only three counties out of the 47 in Kenya that have not put in place the climate action plan as required by the National Treasury.
The county had also been flagged for not setting aside funds for climate change, which is required to be at least 1.5 per cent of its total development budget.
The county has also not carried out a participatory climate risk assessment at the respective wards.
The National government through the National Treasury and Economic Planning received financing from the World Bank towards the cost of the Financing Locally Led Climate Action Programme.
The programme focuses on capitalising the national and county climate change funds; building county-level capacity for planning, budgeting, reporting and implementation of local climate actions in partnership with communities; and strengthening of national level capacity for coordination, monitoring and reporting.
It is implemented by the National government in collaboration with County governments.
Part of the strategy employed by the Kenya Kwanza administration to mitigate climate change is to plant at least 15 billion trees in Kenya, in the next 10 years.
According to Ruto, the tree restoration programme will work to reduce greenhouse emissions, stop and reverse deforestation, and restore 5.1 million hectares of deforested and degraded landscapes through the African Landscape Restoration Initiative.
The initiative is also expected to help create jobs for Kenyan youths.
Ruto who spoke at a round-table on The Alliance for Green Infrastructure on New Global Financing Pact Summit in Paris, France in June, called for a new multilateral climate change action mechanism financed from global carbon taxes on fossil fuel, aviation, marine transport, among other transactions.
He said this would fund decarbonisation, adaptation and nature protection.