Trump Pulling Out of Climate Finance and What it Means for Kenya

It was not until the last five years that the menace of climate change sunk deep into the brains of Kenyans. It was not until late last year that Kenya started to put into use the climate finance funding that was being distributed by the likes of World Bank and the Organization for Economic Co-operative and Development (OECD).

President Trump. Courtesy

For a developing country, we would expect a 100% turnout and aggressiveness for the climate finance money but only a shocking 29% of Kenya's institutions claimed that money: taking a large chunk of the percentage was Makueni County.

 If we isolate the county from other counties we find great disparity that we may say pushed the county to run for this money. Makueni seems to be a county that has experienced hardship in terms of rainfall availability and as a result they had to adapt to their low levels of rainfall conditions therefore ceasing the once in a lifetime opportunity to better their lives. 

Rural folk fetching water at a water pan in Kenya

 Truly necessity is the mother of invention. This stands for community drivenness as United Nations Environment (UNEP) Africa Regional Climate Change Programme Coordinator Dr. Richard Munag would put it. But something else also seems to stand out with this county. The governor of this county Kivutha Kibwana upto 2017 was an environmentalist by profession and so we may formulate our theories as what gave this county an upper hand when it came to access of climate fund.

That brings me to wonder what the other 46 counties are doing in terms of climate finance. Is it because they face little to zero hardships that they fail to see the need to grab the opportunity at hand to better themselves or should we place the blame on their leader's lack of environmental enthusiasm? I tend to think areas such as Makueni tend to be better activists of the environment compared to the rest of the country.

When trump suggested pulling out of the climate change agreement, what was Kenya's reaction as a country? What do we stand to gain or lose if the most powerful man on the planet pulls out? While at the national level it becomes close to impossible to do much as devolution has channeled power back to the people at the county level. 

US President Donald Trump

 Are we driven enough as a people to exploit the manna of climate finance at our disposal? Are our leaders at the county level ready to lead us to the right path of climate change mitigation and adaptation? If indeed the idea of climate change has sunk in, will we as a third world country not be contradicting ourselves when we venture into the much protested coal mining in Lamu? 

Are we any much different from Trump, seeing that we receive climate finance fund with one hand and on the other hand go back home to carry out plans that contradict efforts to mitigate climate change. Are we in support of Trump? Are we going one step forward and two steps backward? Are we fighting for nature?

Forget Lamu for a minute, what about our lake Turkana which happens to be the largest desert lake in the world? By allowing the Ethiopian government to build a dam, are we not killing the sources of livelihoods for 300000 people? If not they why are we not taking the climate finance fund and investing in renewable sources of energy. Then we might as well a have no right to complain when Trump threatens to pull out of the climate change act. Are we turning our backs away from nature? 

Climate change is not just a national agenda but it is an agenda for both you and I.

Climate change is not just a national agenda but it is an agenda for both you and I. We need to stand for nature. As we forge towards nonrenewable sources of energy we risk more damage to our environment. Yes there may be climate finance fund but what happens to Kenya as a country when trump decides to actually pull the plug? We not only face the risk of losing one of the biggest financiers of climate finance but also face the risk of losing other financiers of climate funds. 

Therefore, this may create a shortage for climate finance which means it will not be accessible to all countries. Climate finance will be like jobs in Kenya, rare and hard to come by. Strict guidelines may be imposed before a country actually gets the funding. With our current wave of activities on the country we may fail to qualify for this fund leaving us with no money for climate finance and a degrading environment that we may not be able to bounce back from. 

Trump pulling out of climate change agreement is like making funeral arrangements, and Kenya investing in non-renewable energy sources is like Kenya digging its own grave.

What is The Solution?   

Mine is simple. It seems there is a gap between those who know and those who do not know. In as much as there is hype and has always been hype about going to the conference of parties (I am not against going to COPs) but I feel that in as much as the countries might put out targets to achieve, it might be a bit more realistic to go it the other way round. Yes at the COPs we will have targets, but how sure are we that those particular countries will achieve them. The issue of Trump pulling out could be a wakeup call for the so called rest of the world, Kenya included to COPtisize (COP+ customize) the country.

Instead of having to wait a whole twelve months to go make promises that you may or may not fulfil why not go to the respective counties and hold the COPs meetings there. Get the common man on the ground involved in the COPs. Show them how their activities through the C-ROADS software which strives to calculate to what degree our efforts to mitigate climate change can be able to reduce the global temperatures to two degrees and below by the year 2100. This becomes vital as scientist seem to have proof that any rise of temperatures by even 0.5 degrees can be detrimental. This could lead to our cities submerged in water like the recent case of Miami.

  My solution is to take the issue back to the people at the grassroot level and letting them find a solution rather than getting the climate finance money and expecting them to come up with projects which tend to scare some of them as they perceive such things to be done by scholars while most of them aren't. This in my opinion is the way that the rest of the counties in Kenya can become at par with Makueni county which has done outstanding job when it comes to climate finance. It is because we cannot have every county governor who is well knowledgeable in climate finance issues. We need to customize climate change mitigation to fit the people instead of customizing the people to fit into climate change mitigation.

Boys fetching water at a water pump in Kenya

In does not have to stop there. We could then proceed to hold continental meetings so that Africa can have a better bargaining power when it goes before the rest of the world. We could have like three meetings before we arrive at the COPs to present our issues.

The Article was Submitted by: 

Dolphine Magero

Undergraduate Student: Bachelor of Science (Environmental Conservation and Natural Resources Management) 

University of Nairobi  

Email: dolphinedrey@gmail.com