Kibaki out one more time

Mwai Kibaki left the country on Tuesday to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen Denmark.

The plane carrying President Kibaki and his entourage departed Jomo Kenyatta International Airport at 9am.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference which begun on December 7 will continue until December 18 and it is expected to lay down comprehensive mechanisms for combating climate change.

President Kibaki is expected to underscore the need to address the issue of Climate Change alongside the deep rooted consequences of poverty including access to energy, food security and conflict resolution.

The President has demonstrated the seriousness which the Kenyan Government attaches to environmental conservation by initiating comprehensive strategies to protect vital water towers in the country and reforestation programmes.

Kenya has in the recent past hosted and attended regional forums aimed at building consensus among African leaders and to consolidate Africa's position during the Copenhagen Conference because the continent has suffered shocking effects from Climate Change despite its minimal contribution to the global threat.

President Kibaki has asked African leaders and world leaders at large to join hands in pushing for the strengthening and upgrading of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) into a fully-fledged World Environment Organisation in order to execute its mandate effectively and to remain in Nairobi.

During the African Summit of the Group of Ten on Climate Change last month, President Kibaki noted that the severity of the environmental catastrophe and related challenges in Africa justifies the enhancement of the UNEP capacity.

President Kibaki wants African countries to present new initiatives aimed at enhancing global dialogue and support for environmental solutions for the good of humanity.

The President has always emphasized that Africa's priorities for sustainable development, poverty reduction and attainment of the Millennium Development Goals must guide its engagement in the negotiations at the Copenhagen Climate Change conference.

President Kibaki asserts that Africa must talk with one voice to ensure continued commitment and support to the Kyoto Protocol as the only legal and political basis for dealing with devastating effects of climatic change.

The President observes that access to adequate and predictable financial resources would help redress the damage already done through global warming as a result of excessive carbon emissions by the industrial world.

President Kibaki appeals to African countries to go to the Copenhagen negotiations with clearly articulated and budgeted programs and projects to help the continent meet its climate change mitigation and adaptation challenges.

He says Africa must demand that industrial countries meet their carbon reduction targets within specified timeframe and the main polluters to assume their moral obligations to significantly scale-up financial and technological resources in support of least environmental polluters on the world, especially Africa.