Several groups want
Kenya's strategy to fight climate change revised to include projects that can directly help poor people.
The environment lobbies say the strategy only
focuses on large-scale infrastructure projects such as building more geothermal plants for energy production.
“But no attention is given to
small scale projects that are being implemented by local communities and which contribute towards reduction of green house
emissions such as energy saving cook stoves and small scale biogas plants,” says Velma Oseko, a coordinator with the Sustainable Environmental Development Watch (Suswatch Kenya), a network of environment NGOs.
Poor people are hardest hit by the changing climate through negative impacts such as severe flooding and persistent droughts.
Oseko said including pro-poor projects in Kenya's strategy could lift them out of poverty.
“There will be a dual objective of contributing to poverty reduction in East Africa since majority still live in rural settings,” she said.
The Kenyan strategy includes commitments, officially known as Nationally Determined Contributions, which form the basis of the country’s engagement to the Paris Agreement, the legally binding international agreement to fight climate change.
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Countries will meet at the end of this year to finalise implementation guidelines for the agreement.
The agreement aims to stop global temperature rising above two degrees beyond the pre-industrial times temperatures, increase the ability of people to adapt to the changing climate and ensure there is funding for clean, non-polluting developments.
Climate change refers to a change in long-term weather patterns, and is triggered largely by the increased levels of carbon dioxide in the air, produced by the use of fossil fuels.
Kenya’s historical contribution to this is low, at 0.1 per cent compared to the rest the world, says the ministry of environment.
However, the country still made a legally-binding commitment toward the 2015 Paris Agreement to reduce the contribution by 30 per cent by 2030.
Kenya's commitment is expected to receive international support in various forms including financing and new technologies to help the country develop while reducing pollution.
SusWatch Kenya and its partners in Uganda and Tanzania have also reviewed the NDCs for the three countries and note that all of them focus on big projects, leaving out pro-poor strategies, Oseko says.
“These are inclined towards large scale projects in energy, agriculture, forestry, waste management and infrastructure such as up scaling the geothermal project in Kenya for energy production,” says a media brief released by the organisation.
The Kenyan NDC released by ministry of environment says the country will expand geothermal, solar and wind energy production, other renewables and clean energy options.
Kenya will also make progress towards achieving a tree cover of at least 10 per cent of the land area.
The country will also implement sustainable waste management systems.
The ministry says Kenya will require $40 billion up to 2030 to do this.
“Kenya will require international support in form of finance, investment, technology development and transfer, and capacity-building to fully realize her intended contribution,” the ministry says.