President Uhuru Kenyatta outlines Kenya's climate change agenda

"Kenya continues to take multi-sectoral voluntary domestic measures and actions to expand geothermal, solar, wind and other renewable and clean energy options. Close to two-thirds of our power at present is green. Our 310 megawatt Lake Turkana wind farm will be the biggest such project in Africa," Uhuru said.PHOTO: STANDARD

President Uhuru Kenyatta yesterday told the world that Kenya was expanding the use of geothermal, solar and wind energy.

Uhuru yesterday joined 80 heads of state and government at the UN climate change conference in Marrakech, Morocco.

"Kenya continues to take multi-sectoral voluntary domestic measures and actions to expand geothermal, solar, wind and other renewable and clean energy options. Close to two-thirds of our power at present is green. Our 310 megawatt Lake Turkana wind farm will be the biggest such project in Africa," Uhuru said.

He also pointed out that Kenya was on course to achieve and maintain the UN standard of 10 per cent tree cover and would soon introduce and manage low carbon-efficient transportation systems.

Currently, the country's tree cover stands at 7.2 per cent.

Uhuru is attending the joint High-Level Segment of Conference of Parties (COP 22) opened by Mohammed VI, King of Morocco, which continues up to Thursday.

The President said the country enacted the Climate Change Act 2016, which provides a regulatory framework to achieve low carbon climate resilient development.

Other policy measures to achieve a green economy in Kenya are the National Climate Change Action Plan 2013-2017, Climate Change Response Strategy 2010 and Environmental Management and Co-ordination Act Cap 387.

Uhuru said his government had identified areas where urgent mitigation actions should be taken to achieve its climate change mitigation and adaptation goals.

The pillars include restoration of forests and degraded lands, development of an additional 2,275 megawatts of geothermal energy, restoration of degraded forests, encouraging Kenyans to use improved cooking stoves and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and agro-forestry.

Others include rapid bus transit and light rail corridors, developing a greenhouse gas inventory and improving emissions data, measuring, reporting and monitoring forestry emissions and mainstreaming of low-carbon development options into planning processes.

"The Government will undertake a programme to restore forests on 960,000 hectares by 2030 including dry-land forest restoration activities and developing an additional 2,275MW of geothermal capacity by 2030 through private sector investment," he said.