Kenya: Understanding and responding to climate change

The release of the fourth Assessment Report of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change has made the science of climate change even clearer: climate change is happening and is caused in a large measure by human activity. It has many serious and damaging effects and many of the vulnerable countries and communities that largely reside on the African Continent will have their lives that are already very difficult, made impossible.

The earth is warming and the greenhouse gases emitted from industry, transport power plants, agricultural and other man-made sources are the primary cause. They are known as greenhouse gases (GHGs) because they trap heat and raise air temperature near the ground, acting like agriculture on the surface of the planet.

Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases have always been present in the atmosphere, making life possible on earth by trapping heat. Yet since the industrial revolution, emissions of these greenhouse gases from human activity have accumulated steadily, trapping more heat and exacerbating the natural greenhouse effect.

As a result, global average temperatures have risen both on land and in the oceans, with observable impacts already occurring. Kenya is already witnessing the meeting disappearance of the glaciers on Mt. Kenya. The country relies on water supplies from Mt. Kilimanjaro while most of the country’s hydropower potential is on the water system fed by glacial melts from the Mt. Kenya.

The disappearance of the glaciers will affect agricultural activities, availability of water from both rural and urban population and tourist activities. The economic implication of these phenomena on our future plans for the country has yet to be appreciated.

Other impacts of global warming are greater and more rapid sea level rise, increased incidences of extreme weather events, substantial reduction in surface water resources, accelerated desertification in arid and semi arid areas {80% of Kenya’s land mass is arid to semi arid} greater threats to health {e.g. malaria} biodiversity {e.g. bleaching of coral species on the East African tropical reef systems}.

Overall the projected impacts of unmitigated climate change in Kenya is likely to have significant impacts on human livelihoods, health, water resources, agricultural production and food security as well as nature-based tourism. All these would undermine the country’s economic prospects.

Climate change is a real problem, but it also has real solutions. Some of its effects are already inevitable and it is necessary that work on building the adaptive capacity of the vulnerable communities start immediately. Dealing with climate change however requires deeper international co-operation in many areas notably in promoting adaptation particularly for developing countries, spurring technology research, development and deployment and enhancing the carbon markets.

To avoid the worst effects, science tells us that we will need to stablise greenhouse gas emissions by about 50 to 80%. It is a major challenge that will require unprecedented cooperation and participation across the globe, yet the tools exist to begin addressing this challenge now. Around the country and throughout the world, many political, business and community leaders are working to prevent the consequences of global warming because they understand that if we do not address climate change, we will perish.

What can we as a country contribute towards addressing climate change?

The developed countries are obliged to: -

(i) cut down their emission of GHGs;
(ii) to support developing countries is contributing to meeting the objectives of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which is…….. “to achieve, in accordance with relevant provisions of the Convention, stabilization of GHG concentration at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic {originating in human activity} interference with the climate system”……..
(iii) assist developing countries fight poverty, meet their sustainable development objectives and contribute in meeting the objectives of the Convention;
(iv) to provide financial assistance and technology transfer.

Kenya as a developing country is supposed to be assisted under the four areas indicated and in the process facilitated to operationalize policies on sustainable development that contribute to climate change mitigation. These are in the areas of energy efficiency, renewable energy, maintenance of valuable ecosystems, afforestation and reforestation programs.

An initiative the country has embarked on that contributes to both mitigating and adapting to climate change is afforestation. The Ministry has set a target of increasing the forest cover from the current 2% to 10%. This will have positive impact on the local and the regional climate.

The following are other activities where institutions, communities and individuals can take part in and contribute to addressing the issue of global warming

Mapping of Kenya’s vulnerabilities

Kenya is extremely vulnerable to Climate Change as our economy is heavily reliant on Climate Vulnerable sectors, such as agriculture and tourism. While some work is being done by the Ministry of Environment under the National Communication Project, Kenya Meteorological Department and other centres such as the IGAD Climate Applications and Prediction Centre on climate change impacts assessment, vulnerability and adaptation assessments, more analytical work is needed on climate vulnerability and approaches that could maximize resilience at regional, national and local levels. There is also need to develop detailed maps of the complex impacts of global warming, integrating Climate Change related risks with other vulnerabilities. Resources should then be availed to tackle the impacts identified.

Support to Community-based coping strategies and disaster risk reduction
While the country has developed a Disaster Management/Reduction Policy, it needs to be reviewed regularly so as to incorporate the added risks posed by global warming. This is because climate change cannot be predicted with certainty. It is however recognized that focusing on disaster risk reduction at local levels by supporting community-based copying strategies is far more effective and yields benefits that go beyond tackling climate related disasters.

Increased support for small-scale agriculture, afforestation and reforestation progress
There is a lot of potential for carbon storage/sequestration in small scale agriculture. Production in these farms can be boosted by systems that combine new insights and technologies with the wisdom of tradition.

Promotion of sustainable urban development

The urban populations have been increasing very rapidly and with that too is increase in GHG emissions. There is therefore need to have projects that promote, improvement of infrastructure so as to allow for low carbon development and allow for systems for mass transport such as trams and reticulated buses for main transit, protection and good water, management practices, development of green areas, sanitary landfills, alternative energy technologies such as solar heating and cooling systems.