As a society, we are endeared to tree planting campaigns, and we honour the late Prof Wangari Maathai for drawing national attention to environmental concerns.
Yet Kenya’s mean surface temperatures have increased since the late 1990s, when the Nobel Laureate sounded the prescient alarm. Therefore, we must ask ourselves if tree planting campaigns are the most strategic and sustainable means by which the government and private sector can collaborate to realise the goals of the national climate change action plan.
The effective management of productive forestland, and enforcement of environmental standards to ensure the manufacture of sustainably harvested wood products are areas for public-private sector partnership.
Meanwhile, Kenya’s transportation and energy sectors have begun to internalise negative externalities through pricing and practice.
Inasmuch as we have an impressive highway in the Nairobi Expressway, which was a necessary investment to increase economic efficiency, in today’s world, all capital infrastructure projects are not equal and the more climate resilient, the better.
Consequently, such public projects must embed a carbon offset programme to mitigate and report on the climate impact.
Globally, more sovereigns are issuing green bonds while regulators are introducing or enhancing carbon policies. More recently, there is a recalibration of economic structures as nations seek to enhance economic resilience, recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Towards the end of 2021, the Central Bank of Kenya introduced the Climate Risk Guidelines for Banks. The industry through the leadership of Kenya Bankers Association (KBA) has made commendable strides to increase its capacity to assess the transition, physical and liability risks endogenous to “brown” production.
Such policy changes will save hundreds of thousands of tons of CO2 emissions annually (akin to millions of trees planted). The government should factor incentives for banks and their clients for even more positive environmental externalities to be realised.
