Nairobi hosted the first ever Africa Climate Summit (ACS) & Africa Climate Week (ACW) from 4th to 6th September 2023. The forums provided 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 gathering sought to come up with ways to overcome climate change challenges and seize the inherent opportunities in the climate debate. It noteworthy that these discussions on climate change mitigation and adaptation initiatives will find their way into the 28th Conference of Parties (COP28) to be held in December of this year in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The summit dealt with four major systems-based tracks global scaling up, namely: energy systems and industry; cities, urban and rural settlements, alongside the infrastructure and transport; land, ocean, food and water; and societies, health, livelihoods and economies.
Successful climate change adaptation and mitigation requires and revolves around five aspects. First is the land uses because land plays an important role in the global cycles of Green Houses Gases (GHGs) which include Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4) and Nitrous Oxide (N2O), these gases have a blanket effect on the atmosphere which then causes global warming and climate change. Land use activities can increase or reduce the emission of these greenhouse gases to the atmosphere and hence affect climate change. Secondly, planning and development management, such that planning priorities should be on actions and activities that promote both mitigation and adaptation to climate change, in addition to mainstreaming benefits to local development needs. Spatial planning and urban development, which will continue to grow exponentially in the next decade (Kenya has 372 urban centres as per the Kenya Population and Housing Census of 2019) must be pro-poor and focusing on adaptation and mitigation. Thirdly, management of the environmental pollution where for example transport systems contribute to 23 percent of carbon emissions, and solod waste contributes to 5 percent of the GHGs.
Fourth, ensure human activities conserve nature and resources, such that more trees are planted to act as carbon sinks and hence absorb the carbon dioxide and release more oxygen to the population; and five, institutionalizing production and use of sustainable, clean and green energy, which calls for change from use of fossil fuels to more clean energy like geothermal, wind and solar sources, which are abundant in Kenya and most of the African continent. Dr Giti is an urban management, public – private partnerships (PPP) and environment specialist. mutegigiti@gmail.com , @danielgiti
Dr. Daniel Mutegi Giti 