Sh1.8trn set aside for Kenya's 5-year climate change programme

What you need to know:

  • The five-year ambitious climate change action plan seeks to restore water catchment areas, boost afforestation and ensure clean environment.

  • The plan will also see Sh11 billion used to support technology and innovation, new laws and public education among the citizens.

  • The policy notes that the risk of malaria and other vector-borne diseases is projected to increase due to changing climatic conditions.

  • The priority of the action plan is to increase food and nutrition security by enhancing productivity and resilience of the agricultural systems.

Sporadic weather changes being experienced in the country are the target of an ambitious Sh1.8 trillion programme set to be rolled out under the Ministry of Environment.

The government is preparing to unveil the five-year ambitious climate change action plan which will seek to restore water catchment areas, boost afforestation and ensure clean environment.

Documents seen by the Nation show that a National Climate Change Council, to be chaired by President Uhuru Kenyatta, which will be responsible for overall coordination of climate change affairs, including guiding the implementation of National Climate Change Action Plan 2018-2022.

It follows concerns that climate change will negatively impact the country’s future development and achievement of the goals of Kenya Vision 2030 — the long-term development blueprint — and the government’s Big Four Agenda.

It could frustrate the focus on ensuring food and nutritional security, affordable and decent housing, increased manufacturing and affordable healthcare.

INNOVATION

According to the document, the plan will also see Sh11 billion used to support technology and innovation, new laws and public education among the citizens.

“Food security is threatened through climate change-driven declines in agricultural productivity,” the document says.

It adds: “Health is impacted by an increase in vector-borne diseases (including malaria and cholera), housing and manufacturing are impacted by damage to infrastructure (including homes, business, schools, and hospitals) caused by flooding and storm events.”

The policy notes that the risk of malaria and other vector-borne diseases is projected to increase due to changing climatic conditions.

Approximately 13 to 20 million Kenyans are at the risk of contracting malaria, with the number likely to rise as climate change facilitates the movement of malaria transmission up the highlands, and increases the transmission intensity in areas where malaria already occurs.

ADAPTATION

The programme outlines programmes and strategies for adaptation and mitigation for July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2023.

It is a comprehensive plan that enables all sectors to act to achieve climate change adaptation and mitigation objectives, support the achievement of the Big Four Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals. It also gives priority to adaptation actions because of the devastating impacts of droughts and floods, and the negative effects of climate change on vulnerable groups in the society including women, elderly people, the disabled, children, youth, and minority or marginalised communities.

The programme also seeks to undertake actions, where possible, to limit greenhouse emissions to ensure that the country achieves its mitigation Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement and enable actions to be undertaken in an integrated manner to address several priorities.

Some of the actions include planting trees and contributing to disaster risk management, water, and food security objectives.

REDUCE RISK

According to the plan, the priority is to reduce risks to communities and infrastructure resulting from climate-related disasters such as droughts and floods.

The actions will seek to increase the number of households and entities benefiting from devolved adaptive services, improve the ability of people to cope with drought and floods and increase infrastructural resilience besides improving the coordination and delivery of disaster risk management activities.

“The impacts of climate-related disasters are felt at the household level through food insecurity, damage to property and increased prices of food and fuel and at the national level, where scarce government resources are re-allocated to address the impacts of disaster at the expense of other programmes,” reads the plan.

According to the report, drought conditions in late 2017 and early 2018 left 3.4 million people severely food insecure and an estimated 500,000 people without access to water.

FOOD SECURITY

The second priority of the action plan is to increase food and nutrition security by enhancing productivity and resilience of the agricultural systems in as much low-carbon manner as possible.

Actions will be to improve crop productivity through the implementation of climates-mart actions, improve crop productivity by increasing the acreage under efficient irrigation, increase productivity in the livestock and fisheries sectors through implementation of climate-smart actions and enable people to adjust to a changing climate.

The programme also seeks to have greenhouse gas emissions of 2.61 MtCO2e by 2022 through agroforestry, minimum tillage systems, manure management and efficiency in livestock management.

It will also strive to enhance resilience of the Blue Economy and the water sector by ensuring access to and efficient use of water for agriculture, manufacturing, domestic, wildlife and other uses.

WATER

Some of the actions to be taken in this regard include increasing annual per capita water availability through the development of water infrastructure, climate-proof water harvesting and water storage infrastructure.

“Kenya is a water scarce country with per capita water availability of 647m3, which is well below the global benchmark of 1000m3 per capita, indicating chronic water scarcity,” read the policy.

The government is also targeting to increase forest cover to 10 percent of total land area, rehabilitate degraded lands including rangelands and increase the resilience of the wildlife and tourism sectors.

The government will also focus is on the manufacturing sector where it is seeking to improve energy and resource efficiency.

The plan will also seek to ensure that Kenya enhances the use renewable energy, which is resilient to climate change, in the supply of electricity.