Kindiki calls for quicker release of trillions for climate change fight in Kenya and Africa

The DP said Africa has been poorly funded citing lack of attention on the continent’s abilities to significantly contribute to the fight against the phenomenon and bureaucratic tendencies frustrating the mission.

The Deputy President, who is representing Kenya at this year’s COP 30 conference in Belem, Brazil, on Friday assured the Summit of the country’s unwavering commitment to meet its obligations including the quest to ensure the energy grid is 100 percent green-based by 2030.

“Building on this foundation of clean energy, Kenya has updated and submitted a bold and ambitious economy-wide Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC 3.0) focused on greening the energy and industrial sectors, in line with the African Climate Action agenda enunciated by the Nairobi and Addis Ababa African Climate Summits of 2023 and 2024 respectively,” DP noted.

Despite this commitment, Prof. Kindiki revealed inadequate reciprocal support saying Kenya has only received $50 million (Sh6.5 billion) against a promise of $62 billion (Sh8 trillion) to implement its commitments by 2030.

“The gap between promise and delivery is huge. Sadly, every dollar delayed, every bureaucratic obstacle and every failed commitment has a human cost,” DP stated during the Leaders’ Summit ahead of the 30th Session of the Conference of Parties (Cop 30) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Further, the Deputy President said Africa continues to suffer from the severe effects of climate change citing frequent droughts, floods and recent landslides and mudslides in Kenya across the continent.

“Global investment in Africa has been minimal and slow. Less than 2% of the three trillion dollars invested in renewable energy over the last two decades has reached Africa, with 600 million people on the Continent left without access to energy,” he said.

Despite this shortage, he vouched for Africa’s critical role in consolidating efforts to achieve global goals on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and agreed endeavours to tackle climate change.

“Africa can help the world in the transition to green energy because it has the world’s largest untapped renewable energy resources, vast critical mineral resources essential for energy transition and a youthful demographic that can power the next phase of global manufacturing,” Prof. Kindiki added.

As he challenged leaders to follow up on its promises to the developing nations, the DP said the COP 30 ought to be the conference that unlocked trillions needed to match the scale of the climate crisis.

He called for the operationalization of the Baku-to-Belem Roadmap and a clear path for mobilizing 1.3 trillion dollars for developing countries by 2035 as agreed at COP 29 last year in Baku, Azerbaijan.

“The failure to honour commitments, bureaucratic delays and the lengthy discussions at the COPs that prioritizes process over delivery are simply cruel and unjust to the millions suffering from the effects of harsh climate today,” he added.

Additionally, Prof. Kindiki called for a more-inclusive fight saying a more consolidated fight is more fruitful.

“Climate policies must integrate the empowerment of Women, the Youth and the Farmers, ensuring that the benefits of green economy are equitably shared across communities, gender and generations, and that the 1 billion people in Africa who lack clean cooking amenities are prioritized,” he stated.