Kenya's PM calls for climate change funding

Written By:PMPS,    Posted: Thu, Apr 21, 2011

Prime Minister RAila Odinga addresses delegates at the clean energy conference in Paris

Prime Minister Raila Odinga is calling on the international community to deliver the $30 billion pledged towards climate change initiatives during the Cancun Climate talks last year before the next conference to be held in Durban, South Africa.

Opening a conference on clean energy organized by Kenya and France in Paris on Monday, Odinga said that despite the commitments made last year, the world was still waiting to see substantial inflows of monies for climate change.

In Cancun last December, all the parties made a commitment of $30 billion for 2010 to 2012 and $100 billion annually thereafter towards the projects geared towards addressing climate change.

The PM said that for the next climate conference which is only eight months away to be meaningful, the delivery of the money was crucial.

Odinga said the tragic earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan and damaged its nuclear power plants in Fukushima and the upheaval in North Africa and the Middle East have highlighted the urgency of the task.

"Japan, like the rest of the world, is wondering if nuclear power can ever be fully accident-proof, and whether it is wise to rely on the expansion of nuclear power for future energy needs following the earthquake", the PM said.

He said Japan's government has indicated that one consequence of these doubts might be its inability to meet the 25 per cent reduction target for greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

Such doubts, he said, makes it urgent for nations to embark on developing clean energy sources.

"In Africa and elsewhere, there are huge untapped renewable energy resources. There are vast tracts of land where we can plant trees and regenerate rich forests to create extensive carbon sinks. The choice need not be between climate and public safety," the PM said.

Saying Eastern Africa alone has geothermal resources equivalent to 20,000 megawatts of electricity, the PM noted that Africa has abundant sources of biofuels, including jatropha, sweet sorghum and croton which can be explored to produce oil without competing for space with food production to avoid reliance on biofuels. 

He said events in North Africa and the Arab world have exposed the dangers of reliance on biofuels saying crude oil has now risen to $110 per barrel, while the IMF's ‘adverse' scenario assumes an average of $168 a barrel by next year.

"Such a rise could lower economic growth in Kenya by one per cent or more this year and set the country far back in its objective of clean energy for all by 2030," said Odinga.

Odinga called on nations to use the current oil crisis as a reason to invest massively in renewable energy, and to do so expeditiously.

He called for grant facilities to subsidise solar and other Independent Power Producer projects that are otherwise uneconomic in low-income countries.

The PM asked the conference to adopt a resolution calling on the international community to redouble its efforts to maximise generation of clean energy, and to make modern and high-quality energy services accessible to all at affordable costs.

He also called on the G8 and G20 to take up this call during the Summit next month.

The Paris-Nairobi Initiative on Clean Energy was first mooted in 2009 at a meeting between Odinga and Jean-Louis Borloo, then French minister of ecology. It aims to help African countries and others vulnerable to climate change develop capacity to deal with the problem.

The PM is accompanied by Energy Minister Kiraitu Murungi, assistant Minister Mohamed Mohamud, MPs Manson Nyamweya and Mohamed Hussein Gabbow.

The conference closes on Friday.