President Uhuru Kenyatta pushes for reduced greenhouse gas emissions

NEW YORK: President Uhuru Kenyatta has called for increased international co-operation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Uhuru made the appeal in New York, US, on Tuesday when he chaired the climax session of the Climate Summit 2014 at the United Nations headquarters where he also called for bold actions by governments to provide affordable and sustainable clean energy.

“The challenge has moved on from whether renewable energy can power modern lifestyles at a reasonable cost — which we now know it can — to how best to finance and accelerate its deployment to increase the share of renewables in the energy mix,” he said.

The President took advantage of the session, which revolved around energy, to announce the launch of the Africa Clean Energy Corridor (ACEC). The corridor which covers 22 countries in the Eastern and Southern Africa, aims at providing affordable, clean and secure renewable power supply.

“The Africa Clean Energy Corridor is a decisive and focused action agenda to link markets and connect resources with demand, and to unlock massive economies of scale for the deployment of renewable energy,” he said.

Uhuru pointed out that regional co-operation on renewable energy deployment would save 2,500 metric tons of cumulative carbon monoxide emissions by 2030, and double electricity supply.

He added that it was important for developed countries to reduce greenhouse emissions to protect the future of the least developed countries and island nations.

“The actions announced here today should not only send a strong political message on our commitment towards addressing climate change, but also push the intergovernmental process under the auspices of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to conclude negotiations on a post-Kyoto climate change agreement,” he said.

The President encouraged African countries to continue opening their energy sectors to private operators to attract further investments.

“We need to turn the challenges of climate change into investment opportunities for present and future generations,” he said.

He pointed out that to achieve such a goal requires massive financial resources for building technical capacity and technology transfer.

ENERGY POTENTIAL

“We call for support from investors and other partners to enable us fully exploit our renewable energy potential,” the President said.

The President highlighted Kenya as one of the African countries investing in renewable energy to address the power deficit in the continent.

“I am happy to report that on Kenya’s grid today, we have over 70 per cent renewable energy,” he said.

Uhuru also hosted a high-level meeting at the UN to rally governments to use domestic funding to support their health systems.

The meeting on health was attended by leaders from government, finance, universities, medical services and civil society.

Besides Heads of State and Government, other leaders who spoke during the sessions include the president of the EU Jose Manuel Durao and chairperson of the AU Nkosana Dlamini Zuma.