County establishes grassroots committees to address effects of climate change

Nyeri,

Monday, December 11, 2023

KNA by Samuel Maina

Nyeri County has come up with Ward Climate Change Committees to help sensitize the public on the effects of climate change.

 This move comes after the undertaking of a Participatory Climate Risk Assessment Change (PCRA) in the 30 wards that gave birth to the Nyeri County Climate Change Action Plan (2023-2027).

 The county climate blueprint was developed under the Financing Locally Led Climate Action (FLLoCA) and is in compliance with the National Climate Action Change Act of 2016 that mandates counties to integrate climate change actions into their development programs and governance structures.

 During his address before the County Assembly on November 30 this year, Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga said such a framework would not only benefit both the current generations but also the ones to come.

“On climate change, the county government has crafted measures to respond to the climate change threats and put in place climate response actions to ensure a low carbon resilient growth and sustainable development of the county for the current and future generations. We have developed the Nyeri County Climate Change Action Plan (2023-2027) under the Financing Locally Led Climate Action (FLLoCA). We have also established Ward Climate Change Committees in all 30 Wards,” reads part of his statement.

To this end, the county government has issued at least 11,000 seedlings of assorted tree species including 4,000 indigenous seedlings as part of its greening programs.

 Part of the seedlings have been issued out to various public institutions such as schools while others have been given to members of the public for planting on individual farms as woodlots.

 The county has similarly developed the Nyeri County Environment Management (Noise and Excessive Vibration Pollution Control Regulations, 2023) to curb the playing of loud noise that will be a nuisance to the public.

“At Environment, we strive to involve our people in all initiatives designed to guarantee a healthy and clean environment. To enhance eco-beautification and greening programs, we have issued 11,000 assorted trees to various institutions and community groups in the county. To guide our operations, we have developed the Nyeri County Environment Management (Noise and Excessive Vibration Pollution Control Regulations, 2023) and the Nyeri County Forest Management and Conservation (Harvesting and Movement of Forest Produce Regulations ,2023),” his report further reads.

 In October last year Kahiga announced plans to allocate resources (in partnership with the national government) to cushion the county against adverse effects of climate change that had been blamed for the drying up of critical water resources in the area.

He noted that the cyclical and unpredictable climate changes had continued to impact negatively on agriculture and livestock farming, threatening the livelihoods of both man and beast.

“To mitigate the effects of climate change, our focus will be to partner with Kenya Forest Services to adopt and reforest the large sections of the Aberdare Forest that suffered great destruction causing our rivers to dry up and affecting our farming activities downstream.

Through afforestation, we will create new jobs in the carbon trade by harnessing forest cover from the current 40 per cent by planting 50 million trees, establishing Community Forest Associations for all the 12 County forests, and establishing green park spaces in major towns,” said the county boss while making his inaugural speech before county lawmakers following his reelection.

And in May this year County Climate Change Director Yvonne Mathenge said the drying up of rivers and depressed yields of major cash crops such as tea and coffee was a wakeup call for urgent intervention measures in addressing the effects of climate change.

Ms Mathenge told KNA the county was undertaking PCRA in all the wards to identify existing climate change risks and hazards in each locality and come up with workable mitigation and adaptation measures.

“Climate change is bad and this has been witnessed by the long drought that we had and the failed crops. And also, when we get into the highlands, we’ve had very low yields for crops that were otherwise doing very well, a case in point is coffee and tea. I think these were the biggest indicators and if you have the highlands affected you can only imagine what the semi-arid areas are going through which was also witnessed by the number of water conflicts that the Water Department had to solve amongst the various communities because there was not enough flow of water,” she pointed out.

A total of 20 members formed the ward Climate Change committees including representatives from the interest groups, community group members, government officers, and private organisations.

 Deliberations from the meetings were to be consolidated into a document that was to form the basis of the County’s Climate Action Plan.

Scientists link the severity and frequency of natural disasters such as droughts, floods, locust invasions and the Covid-19 pandemic to climate change.

They estimate the cost of mitigation and adaptation and compensation for loss and damage to be about $580 billion in 2030 a figure expected to hit the $1.8 trillion mark by 2050.

Despite developed nations and their big corporations playing a big role in the current greenhouse gas emissions, African countries, including Kenya, suffer disproportionately from the effects of climate change.

Civil Societies from Africa who are attending the Conference of Parties (COP28) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Dubai, UAE, have presented a common agenda in climate adaptation, loss and damage to the meeting.

Among their six-point agenda to the conference include coming up with clear, quantitative, and holistic targets for the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) to facilitate adaptation action and increase the ability of parties to adapt to adverse climate impacts.

The Civil Societies have also called for the conference to address African adaptation finance gaps, delivering on commitments to double adaptation funding including setting up of new targets to address the existing gap, reforming the financial system, and prioritizing quality, accessible finance.

Additionally, the group advices, the conference should incentivize financing options favourable to Africa like debt relief, tax waivers, and grants to bridge the climate finance gap.

Curtains are expected to come down on the two-week conference on December 12(tomorrow).

Courtesy; KNA