- The increased funds, the report said, should be beyond $100 billion a year (Sh10.1 trillion) that developed countries had promised the developing ones.
- Kenya has enhanced its mitigation target from a greenhouse gas emissions reduction of 30 per cent to 32 per cent by 2030.
Image: HESBORN ETYANG
Countries that are currently reeling from impact of climate change need accelerated financing from the international community, a new report has said.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report released on Monday shows that support to low-income countries, like Kenya, is a critical enabler of a low-carbon and just transition.
The report, 'Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change' said that scaled-up public grants for adaptation, mitigation and funding for low-income and vulnerable regions, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, may have the highest returns.
The Working Group III contribution to the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Cycle examines current trends of emissions and projected levels of future warming.
It also examines how to transition to a low carbon economy in order to limit global warming to 1.5 celsius.
The group considers trends in sectoral emissions across energy, transport, agriculture, buildings and industry, and projected warming levels based on current levels of policy commitment.
Kenya is currently grappling with the effects of climate change that are manifesting itself in form of long droughts, floods and the rising lakes.
More than three million Kenyans are currently in dire need of food.
On December 24, 2020, Kenya submitted an updated Nationally Determined Contribution to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Kenya has enhanced its mitigation target from a greenhouse gas emissions reduction of 30 per cent to 32 per cent by 2030.
The country has estimated the total costs for the implementation of the NDC at $62 billion up to 2030 and commits to fund up to 13 per cent of such costs.
The IPCC report said there is need for increased public finance flows from developed to developing countries.
The increased funds, the report said, should be beyond $100 billion a year (Sh10.1 trillion) that developed countries had promised the developing ones.
The report said countries should also start shifting from a direct lending modality towards public guarantees to reduce risks and greatly leverage private flows at a lower cost.
Celine Guivarch, one of the lead authors, said the report showed that reducing emissions at the speed and scale required to limit warming to two degrees or below implies deep economic changes.
The economic changes, he said, could increase inequality between and within countries.
“But policies can be designed to avoid increasing or even decrease economic inequality and poverty. This entails broadening access to clean technologies and international finance," he said.
Brett Cohen, one of the coordinating lead authors, said the report recognises that mitigation must be region and context specific. So not all actions are applicable everywhere.
Furthermore, it highlights the multiple sustainable development benefits from mitigation, as well as the trade-offs that need to be considered.
Cohen also said that the report considers mitigation from a system point of view so as to maximise interactions to optimise benefits.
For instance, the change to clean cooking at household level is best achieved through renewable energy.
Further, mitigation efforts need to look at how sectors and agendas such as the sustainable development goals complement each other.
Cohen said it is more important to ensure low emissions development trajectories, to ensure that development surpasses the high emissions historically found in developed countries.
The report also examined the concept of sustainable development pathways, demonstrating that all decisions taken along the development trajectory have implications for the emissions intensity for economies.
The authors found that agriculture, forestry and other land use can provide large-scale emissions reductions and also remove and store carbon dioxide at scale.
(edited by Amol Awuor)