How Combating Climate Change Can Impact Economy in Kenya
Oct 12, 2024
President William Ruto delivers a speech
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Kenya’s susceptibility to climate change is on the high end as it affects sensitive sub-sectors such as agriculture and tourism. About seventy five percent of the population engages in agriculture which is already getting some shocks with therein extreme events such as droughts and floods and there are therefore some estimations that such a position could give one in GDP losses of up to 7% by the year 2050, if no adaptation measures are taken. William Ruto has been calling for the need for environmental care, through tree growing to take care of climate change scourge
"If there is a programme that will make a meaningful impact on food security, it is environmental protection," he remarked, highlighting the need to protect key water sources for agriculture.
On another note, Mumias East MP Peter Salasya attracted attention because of his remarks about climate change in the world, something that attracted a lot of criticism on social media. Defending his remarks,
Salasya asserted, "I was not elected to talk about climate change."
Kenya has its own share of so much risk but there are also elements of economic opportunity in the climate debate. The country has set a timeline of 2030 whereby its electricity grid will be entirely run on renewable energy.
This is being achieved through initiatives such as the Lake Turkana Wind Power project as it reduces dependence on conventional energy sources and also creates employment.
Performance of agriculture is anticipated to support the nation economically over years to come due to investments on changing from the conventional methods of farming to climate smart agriculture, however, Kenya has a financing shortfall of 62 billion US dollar in mainstreaming climate action for the year 2030.
Resilience building and the enhancement of climate-sustainable economic growth will require additional funding of climate-resilient economic activities and development financing particularly in Kenya.
