Kenya’s private sector launches Climate Change strategy ahead of COP27 forum

FILE: Carole Kariuki, Chief Executive Officer of KEPSA

NAIROBI, Kenya - Kenya’s private sector under their umbrella organization Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) has launched a Climate Change Solution strategy just weeks before the COP27 forum set to take place in Egypt this month.

“We must all forge a head to address Climate Change and that's why our aim is to constantly re-evaluate intervention strategies through concerted efforts to enhance the competitiveness and status of the country as envisioned in Vision 2030,” said Carole Kariuki, Chief Executive Officer of KEPSA during the launch in a city hotel.

KEPSA is championing Green Business Environment reforms for sustainable development and institutionalized it in the Third National Business Agenda (NBA- III-2022-2030).

The Green NBA-III is a strategic guide for public-private dialogue and engagement with the government to create a conducive environment for sustainable and resilient investments.

Ms. Carole further revealed that to address the impact of Climate Change, everyone must play their role to contribute to fighting the vagaries of climate change.

“The Private Sector Strategy on Climate Change (2022- 2030) has thus been developed as a national guide for the private sector to invest and implement climate change solutions at national and county levels in line with the reviewed Kenya’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).” Ms. Carole added.

Prioritizing private enterprises vulnerable to the impacts of climate change including Medium, Small, and Micro-Enterprises, and is anchored on four pillars, is vital in curbing climate change.

The pillars are climate change mitigation ambition, climate change adaptation and resilience, climate information and capacity building, and public Private Partnerships (PPPs) for climate solutions.

Ms. Carole “Lets us engage as the private sector in climate action as implementers are essential if we are to accelerate the transformation to a low-carbon development pathway. Private entities dominate many decisions key to adaptation, for example, the location and design of roads, buildings, and other infrastructure investments, agricultural research on drought-resistant seeds).”

KEPSA however revealed that financing is among the challenge in implementing the above business climate solutions. This is due to a lack of access to financing options to create low-carbon and climate-resilient development pathways.

Other climate change challenges facing developing nations are technical capacity in climate science nexus and business modeling, awareness of opportunities for investment in climate change-related issues, and community engagement and alignment.

The association also voiced their concerns about rich nations producing the highest carbon emission to the atmosphere.

Kenya just like any other nation in the African continent contributes less than 0.1 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions annually yet its most affected in terms of droughts and flooding.

GAROWE ONLINE