Environment CS Soipan Tuya said on Monday the resolutions that were arrived at are "good ones and very disturbing ones."
“One of the good ones is that the final text has made a clear statement on the financing of loss and damage. Developing countries are making the least contribution in terms of global warming yet when it comes to loss and damage, we are facing the harshest form of loss and damage,” she said.
Tuya said African countries are contributing less than four per cent to global warming.
“The developed countries are contributing 80 per cent. Developing countries suffer the most,” Tuya said.
The CS said those with financial muscle should contribute to alleviate the suffering countries are facing.
Tuya said there is a lot of politics around loss and damage and that the political will was missing.
“That is a down side of the CoP27,” she said.
Tuya said the fact that there is an admission that loss and damage need to be supported to alleviate the suffering is of importance.
“The other discomforting aspect of the outcome of the CoP 27 is the fact that there is a deliberate attempt not to accept the special needs and circumstances for Africa, which again ties to who contributes the most and who suffers the most,” she said.
This admission by the CS comes even as evidence is emerging that the country had one of the largest delegations ever to the talks.
President William Ruto led the delegation that included Environment CS Tuya, current PS Chris Kiptoo and PS nominee Festus Ngeno.
CS Davis Chirchir (Energy), Monica Juma (advisor), Mithika Linturi (Agriculture), Alfred Mutua (Foreign Affairs), Alice Wahome (Water) attended the CoP.
Njuguna Ndungu (Treasury), Rael Ruto (Office of DP), Florence Pacifica, Abraham Sing'oei (legal advisor) were among the officials who attended the event.
Other participants from the national, county and state agencies attended the talks that started November 6 at Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
The conference ended on November 19.
A senior communication officer with a crucial state agency told the Star that climate talks have been turned into "a club by some elites at the ministry."
“The group that travels every time to the CoP is known club selected not purely on what they will deliver but because they are joy riders keen to benefit from travel allowances,” she said.
The high-ranking official who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal said those who attend such meetings cannot pin point any project locally funded by money from such talks.
She said the public is yet to benefit from such talks.
During the talks, a fund to help cover damages brought about by the impacts of climate change was formed.
However, the resolutions meant for vulnerable countries hit hard by climate disasters fund are not binding.
Africa contributes the least to global warming in both absolute and per capita terms.
It accounts for the smallest share of global greenhouse gas emissions —3.8 per cent.
It is however the hardest hit in terms of weather extremes.
Kenya, for instance, has in the recent past been hit by extreme weather events such as the rising lakes, and drought, among others.
UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell said the outcome moves us forward.
“We have determined a way forward on a decades-long conversation on funding for loss and damage – deliberating over how we address the impacts on communities whose lives and livelihoods have been ruined by the very worst impacts of climate change,” he said.
Creating a specific fund for loss and damage marked an important point of progress, with the issue added to the official agenda and adopted for the first time at CoP27.
Governments took the ground-breaking decision to establish new funding arrangements, as well as a dedicated fund, to assist developing countries in responding to loss and damage.
They also agreed to establish a ‘transitional committee' to make recommendations on how to operationalize both the new funding arrangements and the fund at CoP28 next year.
The first meeting of the transitional committee is expected to take place before the end of March 2023.
CoP27 saw significant progress on adaptation, with governments agreeing on the way to move forward on the Global Goal on Adaptation, which will conclude at COP28 and inform the first Global Stocktake, improving resilience amongst the most vulnerable.
New pledges, totaling more than $230 million were made to the Adaptation Fund at CoP27.
These pledges will help many more vulnerable communities adapt to climate change through concrete adaptation solutions.
