Climate change and its consequences for the environment present an enormous threat to human development and progress today. It is with this understanding that the UN subsidiary bodies are due to meet in Bonn, Germany, in June to advance agreements on climate change, anchored around the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
For most African countries, climate change has not only become a key policy priority as reflected in their national communications to the UNFCCC but also the reason for more concerted engagement in the global climate change debate. This may explain Kenya's recent move to launch a national climate change action plan that will guide the transition of the country towards a low carbon climate resilient development pathway. Coming at the height of the recent political campaign season, this important document may not have been noticed by many. However, its relevance for Kenya's future cannot be underestimated as it is an important milestone in Kenya's attempt to tackle climate change issues.
The plan lays out a policy road map for reducing the country's vulnerability to climate change, while also acknowledging that without such action, the country's development priorities aimed at transforming the country into a newly industrialising, middle-income country as envisaged under Vision 2030 will be hampered.
Like most African countries, Kenya's economy remains fragile due to the dependency on rain-fed agriculture which contributes upto 28.5 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product. Recent food shortages occasioned by droughts in most parts of the country point to the high level of vulnerability facing the agricultural sector.
According to the Environment ministry, recent droughts have left up to 3.7 million people without access to adequate food and therefore vulnerable to hunger. Between 2008 and 2011, drought alone slowed the country's economic growth by an average 2.8 per cent per year.
In more recent times, the ministry has further warned that the impacts of climate change could be as high as 2.6 per cent of GDP each year by 2030. Fatuma Hussein, a Kenya government party delegate to the climate talks, says the country's high dependency on rain-fed small scale agriculture has increased exposure to climate related risks, not only in the arid and semi-arid regions but also in the grain basket regions where some of the negative impacts could manifest through crop and livestock pests and disease occurrences. In most cases, climate change related risks worsen the poverty situation for rural and urban slum dwelling communities and weaken the safety net support networks.
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