Kenya’s Coal Mining Criticized By Climate Activists.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Assembly has turned their focus on Kenya concerning flouting of climate change mitigation policies as it hosts the One Planet Summit in Nairobi today.

Emmanuel Macron from French and President Uhuru are most likely to be confronted by protests from civil society groups, which have accused Kenya of having double standards in pursuing policies that are against climate change mitigation efforts.

Pan African Climate Justice Alliance which is a continental coalition of non-governmental organisations, had groups under its umbrella point out that while Kenya has been announcing its success in banning use of plastic bags it at the same time encourages the mine of coal in Kitui County and also build a coal-fired power plant in Lamu County. The Executive Director of PACJA Mithika Mwende says the projects will have a worse effect on the environment that plastics would have. “This is a huge contradiction. Kenya should abandon the coal mining project because that’s not good for a country that wants to be an African example in promoting climate change mitigation,” said Mwende on Wednesday.

He explains that Kenya has vast sources of energy that are renewable, inclusive of geothermal, wind and solar and therefore does not need to exploit fossil fuels that could be harmful to both humans and the environment.

Mwende was speaking at a high-end mini-summit that had delegates from 120 countries in attendance. Some of the representatives were from UNEP, The African Union, The African Development Bank, Universities and Business leaders. He assured that the matter will be presented in the main summit.

It was said that undertaking the coal project goes against the UN Sustainable Development goals, the African Union Agenda on energy, multilateral environmental agreements and the Paris Declaration, to which Kenya is a signatory.

Kenya being the headquarters for UNEP, they are required to show commitment to scaling up environmental protection and providing good leadership to the rest of the African countries. “Kenya is the leading African country in geothermal power production and the ninth in the world. It is also blessed with enormous solar and wind power potential. Pursuing coal mining reflects some hypocrisy on part of the government,” he said.

He mentioned that South Africa, which had begun stepping out of coal mining despite the fact that people have lost their jobs should prompt Kenya to take up the decision and move towards green energy and save the environment.

PROTEST

The PACJA is the largest alliance of civil society organisations, with more than 1,000 members drawn from 45 countries.

The civil society groups said they will denounce the One Planet Summit, where President Kenyatta will launch the call to action to prevent, halt and reverse the loss of forests in Africa, as a protest to Kenya’s contradictory policies.

Kenya is the first African country to host the One Planet Summit, launched by President Macron in December 2017.

The summit will showcase Africa’s strengths as a vibrant place for climate innovation and investments, with advances in sustainable business models, climate-smart agriculture, green bonds, and renewable energy.

The regional principal officer for Climate Change and Green Growth Programme at the African Development Bank, Mr Somorin Olufunso, mentioned that environmental challenges cut across borders, and leaders should formulate common positions to address the challenges.

The director of the Nairobi-based Environment and Climate Change Institute Mr. Jacob Olonde said the One Planet Summit will be unachievable because is business oriented and as such its main aim will be to make profit and not necessarily to conserve the environment.

He said the resolutions made at the summit will be difficult to implement because the need to protect the environment has been replaced by the greed for money.

Officials in government were not represented in the meeting, but Environment  Cabinet Secretary Keriako Tobiko had earlier made it known that adopting cutting-edge technologies and innovations will be fundamental in solving environmental challenges.