Kenya hosts the Africa Climate Summit & Africa Climate Week from 4th to 6th September 2023, and it’s hoped that this will provide a viable platform for policy makers, practitioners, private sector, civil society and development partners to deliberate and come up with solutions on the menace of climate change and global warming. The summit will delve into four major systems-based tracks that have high impacts and correlation to the climate change menace. First is the energy systems and industry; secondly is the cities, urban and rural settlements, alongside the infrastructure and transport; thirdly will be land, ocean, food and water; and fourth will be societies, health, livelihoods and economies.
A close look at these four major tracks and systems indicates that if they are not well managed and handled, they can cause significant climate change harm and disruptions to the economy of any country. This in turn poses major risks to the business and various commercial and capital formation interests that are at the core of survival of nations and civilizations. The major worry is that climate change is a global externality in that greenhouses gases emissions in one county affects all the rest because such an emission adds onto the stock of the GHGs in the atmosphere. Green Houses Gases (GHGs) which include Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4) and Nitrous Oxide (N2O), have a blanket effect on the atmosphere which then causes global warming and climate change.
Four major ways through which the economies of less developed and developed nations might be affected by climate change are: First, is need for the existing macro-economic policies and development frameworks in these countries to be modified and calibrated in order to accommodate climate change mitigation and adaptation. Secondly, is need to accommodate frequent weather shocks, upgrading and climate proofing the infrastructure to enhance economic resilience, hence significant amounts of resources will need to allocated in the budgetary cycles to deal with the changes, which means other sectors of the economy may suffer the risk of limited allocations and under-development. Thirdly, is significant risk to the macro-economic and financial stability because the floods, droughts, hurricanes and strong winds and other extreme weather conditions affect production and hence the economy. Fourthly, is loss of profits and utilization of some assets like coal and other fossil fuels as countries adopt to green and sustainable energy. Dr Giti is an urban management, public – private partnerships (PPP) and environment specialist. mutegigiti@gmail.com , @danielgiti
Dr. Daniel Mutegi Giti 