Remarks · 4 September 2023
• Distinguished Guests, • Ladies and gentlemen,
It is encouraging to be with you at this event, which not only resonates with the vision of the Africa Climate Summit, but also aligns with Africa’s capacity to provide sustainable solutions to the world’s most urgent industrial, socioeconomic and ecological needs, while clearly outlining Kenya’s contribution to the development of that potential.
We are here to launch high-level policy documents, which set out Kenya’s long-term vision extending all the way to 2050, along with the country’s medium-term plan for 2027. Additionally, we will unveil grants designed to finance adaptation activities at scale from the level of the county ward, throughout the country, over the next year.
This is perfectly consistent with the government’s commitment to incorporate our Nationally-Determined Contribution targets (NDCs), as well as the identification of climate risks and adaptation measures into the planning, decision-making and implementation phases of programmes and strategies at every level, in every sector.
The documents we are about to launch outline Kenya’s ambition to implement a low-carbon and climate-resilient development pathway. To begin with, the Long-Term Low Emissions Carbon Development Strategy, provides the salient actions intended to enable the country undertake comprehensive decarbonisation of economic activity and achieve resilience to the adverse impacts of climate change by 2050.
Secondly, the National Climate Change Action Plan, 20232027, maps out in detail the sequence of clear and measurable actions that form the implementation pathway towards the attainment of the Long-Term Low Emissions Carbon Development Strategy.
For its part, the Climate Change (Amendment) Act, 2023, establishes the necessary institutional framework to rally stakeholders towards the achievement of national climate action objectives. It is noteworthy that the primary thrust of the amendment is to provide the exploration of the full potential of carbon markets in Kenya in order to access adequate financing for effective climate action.
An overarching goal of the National Climate Change Action Plan is to align climate action in Kenya with the government’s development agenda as articulated in the Bottom Up Economic Transformation Agenda, as well as Vision 2030.
Effective climate action in Kenya remains hampered by serious resource constraints, a challenge we share with other developing nations. To put matters into context, the implementation of our updated NDCs requires $62 billion. To access this level of funding, it is critical for us to collaborate with a broad coalition of stakeholders, led by development partners, in implementing various projects and programmes.
One such programme is the Financing Locally-Led Climate Action (FLLoCA), which is dedicated to supporting the delivery of locally-led climate action by strengthening the capacity of county and national governments to manage climate risk from the bottom up.
The FLLoCA programme design provides a bold and innovative, bottom-up decentralisation of climate financing, as well as decision making, thereby empowering the lowest units, which are the grassroots-level communities in each of Kenya’s 1450 wards, to take charge of the processes of identification, planning and implementation of climate action, based on the existing climate risk.
This approach not only aligns with the rallying call of the Summit, it also re-profiles communities as agents of change, climate action and resilience building and not mere victims of climate change. Further, it provides a framework for ready access to local and traditional knowledge and practices used by communities to survive and thrive in the midst of constant change.
The achievements of the programme so far include the establishment of fundamental climate action institutions in counties, including county climate change legislative and regulatory frameworks, county climate change units and county climate change funds, as well as 1,450 ward climate change planning committees.
Another commendable achievement under FLoCCA is the development of county climate change action plans through inclusive and thorough participatory climate risk assessments at the community level.
Additionally, the government, under FLoCCA, has transferred nearly KSh1 billion ($6.9 million) to counties to support county institutional reform and community level participatory climate risk assessment. This support has borne fruit and pointed us in a highly encouraging direction towards progress in climate action.
As a result, I will today issue KSh7.2 billion ($49.7 million) to counties in the form of county climate change investment grants which, together with KSh3 billion ($20.7 million) of county own-resource allocations, will finance local climate action priorities in agriculture, water and natural resources management in every county.
I thank our governors for their support of the programme which has made it easier for us to achieve so much progress in such a short time. In the same vein, I encourage them to go further and offer more robust support for our effort to grow 15 billion trees over the next decade in order to achieve a national tree cover of 30 per cent by 2032.
I commend the effective collaboration between the ministries of National Treasury and Planning and Environment, Climate Change and Forestry with the Council of Governors, which has facilitated the implementation of FLoCCA, recognise the significant support that has come from the World Bank, the governments of Germany, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands and encourage more development partners to come on board.
It should go without saying that the government remains fully committed to ensuring that funds mobilised under this and other programmes are fully utilised for the intended purpose and in the intended manner, and that we shall remain vigilant and ruthless against any malpractices.
Effective partnership is the engine behind the success of programmes like FLoCCA, which have placed Kenya firmly on the path towards adaptation and resilience and also propelled the country close to establishing a national electric power grid made of 100 per cent renewable energy.
Our vision to reach this target by 2030, as a prelude to drive green industrialisation, is the future of economic growth. In turn, this requires us to channel adequate financial resources through investment and to adopt and implement appropriate technologies and innovations in order to unleash the full potential of our clean and green natural resource endowments.
At the continental level, this applies on an even greater magnitude. In terms of achieving economic transformation on a commensurate scale, the immensity of our natural resource endowments remains an inert heritage. Africa is not poor; Africa is rich. Our continent is abundantly endowed with mineral and natural resource wealth, and the time has come for us to forge a path that factors it fully into strategies to unlock an African future of prosperity and industrialisation.
This is why African leadership is rising to the moment to form a united front and forge collaborations aimed at bringing African Solutions to Africa’s Problems. Today, we take the first step by forming the Accelerated Partnership for Renewables in Africa, where we will share expertise, experiences and innovations to accelerate the progress of our efforts to unlock our tremendous renewable potential to transform our economies.
As a body of peers, the Accelerated Partnership for Renewable Energy in Africa (APRA) will rely on sharing, collaboration and mutual reinforcement as well as the power of partnership to enhance our capacity, empower the youth and attract investments.
Under APRA, I look forward to interacting most closely with leaders from Ethiopia, Namibia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and
Zimbabwe and to relying on their support to keep our partnership sharp and focused.
I thank Denmark, Germany and the United Arab Emirates for their steadfast support since the inception of APRA as an idea. I take this opportunity to encourage the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) to enhance its support and hasten the deployment of renewables worldwide and to empower APRA participants individually and collectively.
In APRA, we must see more than an impressive and ambitious coalition pursuing a transformative idea, to appreciate the inclusive and dynamic ecosystem that brings together governments, the private sector, philanthropies, civil society and other international allies.
Today, we gather to celebrate a new dawn with the launch of the Accelerated Partnership for Renewables in Africa. Tomorrow, we shall undertake, through determined endeavour, the work of writing a new chapter in the account of global transformation, to record and express this new moment of Africa-led green industrial revolution. I thank you.