President William Ruto takes a group photo with delegates at KICC, Nairobi on September 4, 2023 during the Africa Climate Summit 2023. PHOTO | DENNIS ONSONGO | NMG
As African leaders converge in Nairobi to explore ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions during the week-long Africa Climate Summit, Kenya has a head-start in leading the path to green growth and finance solutions.
Three recent developments show how the country is racing ahead towards achieving the targets for the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13: Climate Action — reducing greenhouse gas emissions and investing in climate resilience.
Last December, a Kenyan social entrepreneur, Charlot Magayi, received global spotlight when she won the prestigious Earthshot prize for the production and distribution of cheaper, safer, and sustainable clean cooking stoves to slum dwellers.
Barely a year later, Ms Magayi’s dream of growing the number of people using her green stoves from 200,000 to a million customers in three years is beginning to shape up.
Last week, Kenya’s Senate passed the Climate Change (Amendment) Bill 2023 that sets rules to govern the fast-growing global market for carbon credits, pending assent by President William Ruto.
This is a short in the arm for social entrepreneurs like Magayi who seek to tap into the $2 billion global industry and help millions of Kenyans still reliant on wood and charcoal fuels to start cooking for credits.
This week, all eyes are on Kenya as it hosts a huge delegation of Africa’s leadership drawn from governments, private sector players, multilateral development banks and development partners for the Africa Climate Summit.
The choice of Kenya as a host is a big statement on the role it plays in driving the climate action agenda.
A major highlight of the summit will be ‘the African Leaders Nairobi Declaration on a Green Growth and Climate Finance Agenda and Solutions for Africa and the World’ that will include Carbon Credit Regulatory Frameworks and commitments to a broad framework for Green Growth.
Again, an African commitment to carbon credit rules will bolster Magayi’s Mukuru Clean Cooking Stove’s ambitious journey of reaching 10 million people across Africa.
While it will open up more life-changing opportunities for other women like her across the continent, it will be a huge turning point for millions of lives lost every year on the continent due to indoor air pollution from wood and charcoal fuels.
The Writer is a Public Relations Manager, at MultiChoice Kenya.
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