President Uhuru Kenyatta has affirmed Kenya’s commitment to implementing global climate change adaptation initiatives.
At the same time, the President called for concerted global efforts in addressing climate change saying, like COVID-19, the challenge is a reality that the world must confront urgently.
“Kenya commits to implement the adaptation action agenda; but we can only succeed if we all, as a global community, collaborate in this noble endeavour,” the President said.
President Kenyatta spoke Monday evening at State House, Nairobi during a virtual high-level session of the Climate Adaptation Summit 2021.
Several world leaders among them Prime Ministers Boris Johnson (UK), Narendra Modi (India), Evelyn Wever-Croes (Aruba) as well as United Nations Secretary General António Guterres and his predecessor Ban Ki-Moon attended the meeting hosted by Prime Minister Mark Rutte of The Netherlands.
President Kenyatta emphasized that by pulling together the world will emerge stronger and more resilient from the dangers posed by climate change.
“Indeed, we can expect to reap the triple dividends of reducing emissions, spurring economic growth and delivering social and environmental benefits,” President Kenyatta said as he implored world leaders to rally behind efforts to upscale climate adaptation efforts.
The President identified agriculture as a top priority in Africa’s climate change adaptation agenda saying a large percentage of the continent’s population rely on the sector for its survival.
He said African farmers must be given the tools, information and financial support to enable them to embrace sustainable agracultural practices, respond to changing weather patterns and maximise productivity of their farms
President Kenyatta told the summit that Kenya has upscaled its climate change adaptation efforts by mainstreaming the subject into its national development strategies.
“Kenya is already experiencing the multi-fold climate impacts, including erratic rainfall, droughts and increased temperatures.
“To contain this situation, we have scaled up our adaptation efforts; mainstreaming it into our national development strategy,” he said.
The leaders who spoke during the summit were unanimous in their call for acceleration of climate adaptation efforts so as to safeguard communities from the harmful impacts of a changing climate.
