A thousand billions to be spent on trees

The Environment ministry is set to roll out a Sh1.5 trillion climate change response investment plan to be implement over the next 20 years. Some 35,000 schools, 4,300 women’s groups and 16,350 youth groups will be involved in a major campaign to plant trees under the plan. The plan is to be implemented together with the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife.

In a speech read for him by a ministry official in Kisumu on Tuesday, the Environment and Natural Resources minister John Michuki said the government was developing a comprehensive policy to guide the implementation of the initiatives to reduce the negative effects of climate change.

Mr Michuki said that if every Kenyan planted 10 trees in a year then it would be possible to recreate the lost forest cover in less than five years. His remarks were contained in a speech read on his behalf by Ms Alice Akinyi, an official of the National Environmental Management Authority (Nema) during a regional workshop on climate change strategy at Jumuia Guest House.

The minister said that although Kenya was vulnerable to the effects of climate change, the country’s policies, laws and regulations were not well developed. This made it difficult to tackle the effects of the phenomenon, which, he said, had emerged as one of the most challenging global issues of this century.

“Climate change and all the underlying negative effects have emerged as one of the most challenging global issues of the 21st century.

“Responding to climate change is therefore a priority both for Kenya and the entire world,” said Mr Michuki. Kenya, the minister said, faced challenges of how to mitigate and respond to climate change, whose effects include an upsurge in incidence and severity of extreme climatic events, leading to floods, droughts and landslides.

Other effects of global warming, he said, were receding snow caps on Mt Kenya, and bleached and dying coral reefs at the Coast. Mr Michuki said that Kenya was vulnerable to climate change as her economy relied heavily on sectors susceptible to its effects, such as agriculture, water, energy, transport and tourism.

Thus, he said, it was necessary to develop methods of mapping out complex impacts of global warming, integrating climate change-related risks with other vulnerabilities to prepare for the emerging challenges.