As Kenya joins other countries at the Conference of Parties Meeting (COP21) in Paris, it is important to relook at the implementation of the country’s green growth policy agenda.
For a number of activities geared towards dealing with the country’s climate change, adaptations will only make sense if the national green growth and green economy initiatives are domesticated and implemented to the letter.
Kenya has developed a number of documents to guide the country in the way to respond to the effects of climate change including a National Climate Change Response Strategy (NCCRS 2010) and National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP 2013) while a National Climate Change Framework Policy and legislation are in their final stages of enactment to facilitate effective response to climate change.
In the national strategy, a green grown plan and commitment to a green economy are major players in the country’s responding to the effects of climate change.
The Environment has been accorded the highest legal provision and prioritised in the Constitution, including being recognised in the; Kenya’s Medium Term Plan II (2013-2017) which has endorsed the development of National Green Economy Strategy and Implementation Plan,
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Environment and natural resources management policies and Acts reviewed and aligned with the Constitution, Strategy and actions plans developed based on public participation principles, Climate Change Strategy: 2009 Climate Change Action Plan : 2011, Green Economy Assessment Report and the Green economy Strategy and Action Plan (in progress).
Kenya has committed to reduce its carbon dioxide emission by 30 per cent by the year 2030 and encourages people to use biogas and lastly through the financial Act that offers tax rebates.
The Government uses the controls and reduction of carbon dioxide, government’s activities towards poverty reduction, and GDP growth.
However, as the country prepared for the Paris summit on climate change, much of the Green growth Agenda remained a Nairobi affair, with very little information in the countryside. As we tackle the issue of green economy at the national level, there is need to target the grassroots.
We need to establish structures at the county level to push for the green Growth Agenda. As we make policies at the national level, we need to assist and build the capacity of counties to deal with the issue of green economy as a way of dealing with climate change.
As a country, we need to invest in technology transfer on Green Growth to local farmers not only by the private sector but also by the County Governments including ensuring that County Governments to prioritize Green Growth Agenda in their planning structures so that resources can be allocated to it.
In a recent national green growth Conference hosted by Micro Enterprise Support Programme Trust, it was observed that these measures are not fully understood at the grassroots despite massive investment and national interest.
The conference noted that the country has a huge potential to realise the ambition to the green economy, especially through the newly established public private partnerships framework. The country has the capacity to generate over 8,500 MW of electricity from green sources alone (excluding hydro) and still have an unexploited potential of 5,990MW. By 2014, Geothermal constituted 31.92 per cent of total electricity generated, coming second to Hydro.
At the End of January 2015, Green Energy (excluding hydros) recorded massive growth, geothermal recorded 214 per cent growth while wind recorded 107 per cent growth.
