Posted on September, 27, 2021 at 08:52 am
Kenya will work with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to fight climate change impacts on its economy. The Government-Financing Locally-Led Climate Action Programme (G-FLLoCA) aims to increase access to green technologies to deliver low-carbon, climate-resilient development at national and local levels as well as attract new investments in support of climate resilience.
Through the partnership, the WFP will support the scaling-up of community-led climate-sensitive actions, invest in increasing the capacities of national and county institutions to programme, finance, and implement climate change initiatives, while rebuilding the livelihoods of families who have lost their incomes.
“The impact of climate change on Kenya’s economic development and growth is already significant, with climate-related disasters such as droughts and floods estimated to have an economic liability of between two percent and 2.8 percent of GDP annually,” said National Treasury and Planning Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani, during the signing of the agreement. “This liability is driven by Kenya’s climate-sensitive economy, with sectors such as agriculture, water, energy, tourism and wildlife sectors most-affected and compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic in the past two years,” he added.
If left unchecked, climate change-related shocks will cause untold disruptions to the food and nutrition security of the country, with those already disadvantaged bearing the biggest brunt.
Yatani said Kenya seeks to improve co-ordination and effectiveness in climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts, while promoting greater transparency in line with the Paris Agreement signed in 2015.
WFP Kenya country director, Lauren Landis, said climate change delivers more frequent and intense droughts and other extreme weather, which disproportionately affect the most vulnerable people.
Source: The East African