Kenya has challenged rich countries to honour climate change commitments to developing nations.
State Department for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development PS Susan Mang’eni said developed countries should stick to their Official Development Assistance and climate financing promises.
“In the same breath, developing countries should endeavour to meet their obligations in line with the Addis Ababa Action Agenda,” she said.
“Kenya strongly believes that it is high time we engage a paradigm shift and start viewing development in Africa from opportunity perspectives as opposed to vulnerability.”
The Addis Ababa Action Agenda is a global framework that seeks to align financing flows and policies with economic, social, and environmental priorities.
She made the remarks during 2023 Economic and Social Council Financing for Development Forum General Debate at the United Nations, New York.
The PS said the world is increasingly devastated by crises including armed conflict, and climate change insecurities including food and water shortages.
“The impact of these crises may be global in nature, but developing nations particularly in Africa and the Global South generally, continue to bear the brunt,” she said.
She said the forum should serve to reaffirm a collective desire to re-energise efforts to achieve sustainable development goals which are severely constrained by slow economic growth, shrinking fiscal space, high debt burden, commodity shocks and tightening of global financial conditions.
ODA accounts for around 84 per cent of bilateral climate finance, according to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
