Written by
Faridah N Kulumba
Africa-Press-Kenya The government of Kenya will advocate for the full and timely implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement during this year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26).
The conference got underway on 31 October 2021, in Glasgow, Scotland, under the presidency of the United Kingdom, and will be closed on 12 November 2021.
Kenyan Environment and Forestry Cs Keriako Tobiko, noted that Kenya will be particularly keen on ensuring developed nations fulfill their pledge to provide US$100 billion annually for climate change adaptation, the Star reported.
Paris Climate Agreement
Paris Climate Agreement (also known as the Paris Accord) is an international treaty on the climate crisis which aims at radically reducing the world’s carbon emissions and preventing a catastrophic rise in the Earth’s temperature over 2°C. The 189 nations which participated in signing the agreement were required to establish climate-specific goals to reduce their carbon footprint known as National Determined Contributions (NDCs)
The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26, is the 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
The pledge
The $100 billion pledge is a commitment that was made 10 years ago, and would have been delivered by 2020 but that never happened until today. Instead the developed nations shifted goals by delivering another plan to Kenya saying that the US100 billion dollars will be delivered a year by 2023.
There was an urgent need for rich countries to fulfil their Paris pledge, for Kenya and other developing nations to be able to fulfil their obligations of protecting and securing their infrastructure and populations from the adverse effects climate change.
Why shifting goals
According to Mr Tobiko, the developed nations were shifting goal posts on the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement saying Kenya and other developing nations were pushing for the global funding for climate adaptation in order to meet growing needs of vulnerable communities.
Kenya explained that they are always in a state of emergency, and one of the most vulnerable countries and least emirrers of carbon. Kenya and Africa bear the brunt of climate change. For Kenya, it is about adaptation and ensuring that the people, communities and economy have the necessary resilience to recover when this happens.
Frets
Kenya cautioned that if COP26 fails to solve the issue of reducing emissions and the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement, then it will be devastating for humanity and the globe. This is because it is estimated that atmospheric temperatures are likely to rise by 2.7 degrees Celsius by the end of this century.
This COP26 is the last COP because Kenya is at the tipping point. And it is the COP Kenya believes that will either save humanity and the plant from irreversible consequences or not.
Ratification
Kenya was among the first African countries to ratify the Paris Climate Agreement, and the country had put in place various institutional and policy measures to mitigate the effects of climate change.
Besides the full implementation of the Paris Agreement, African countries will be pushing for the adoption of the special needs and circumstances agenda during the Glasgow meeting because they suffer the most from climate change despite being the list emitters of greenhouse gasses.
