President Uhuru Kenyatta has challenged world leaders to pursue climate change adaptation and mitigation measures that secure people’s livelihoods and expand economic opportunities.
Speaking at the Climate Change Summit on the sidelines of the ongoing United Nations General Assembly in New York, Uhuru said Kenya is “fully committed to the fight against climate change”.
“Our commitment to tackling climate change is deep and arises out of the need to secure our future and that of our children as we have been victims of droughts and declining rainfall which have destroyed our lives and livelihoods and which call on an increasing requirement of public resources to address emergencies and disasters,” the President said.
He said Kenya has taken deliberate steps towards meeting its international climate obligations in sectors such as energy, environment and the blue economy.
“In energy, we have transitioned our energy sources to renewables to the tune of 90%. I recently inaugurated our largest wind power farm on the continent at Lake Turkana and we shall continue to prioritise our energy developments from geothermal and other natural sources,” Uhuru said.
He said Kenya aims to plant two billion trees to achieve the global threshold of 10 per cent tree cover by 2022.
“This is in addition to the global commitment to restore 5.1 million hectares as our national contribution to the African Forest and Landscape Restoration Initiative,” Uhuru said.
Kenya is among the first countries to design and implement a climate-smart agriculture strategy and it hopes to achieve its climate pledge through reforestation activities and climate proofing the agriculture sector.
