Uhuru warns about impact of extreme weather events on security

World leaders are meeting at the United Nations Climate Change Conference to plan how to implement bold measures to avert catastrophic effects.

The President warned that extreme weather events are fuelling conflict as communities fight for food and other resources during floods and droughts.

He noted that in Kenya, for example, extreme weather events lead to losses of between three and five percent of GDP annually.

They also aggravate food insecurity and trigger divisive inter-community and inter-country competition for resources.

“We need to urgently implement bold mitigation and adaptation measures to avert the looming crisis, it is the least that we can do to bequeath a peaceful and sustainable planet to future generations,” the President told the summit attended by World heads of state and government, COP26 president Alok Sharma, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the host UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Kenya has developed a climate change action plan to scale up efforts to maintain low carbon emissions.

The plan includes a commitment to restore degraded water towers, escalate forest restoration and increase tree cover by at least 10 percent.

This is in addition to promoting a sustainable blue economy and green manufacturing as well as achieving 100 percent renewable energy use by the year 2030.

Mr Kenyatta called on the world’s major carbon emitters to make more ambitious emissions reduction commitments.

He also called for more support for Africa, the most vulnerable continent to the impact of climate change.

“Two times in a row, developing countries have been promised $100 billion per year but it has not yet been delivered,” the President said.

During the adoption of the agenda at today’s sitting, the delegates failed to adopt an item on the special needs and circumstances of Africa.

“What we now need is to recognise that we are in a race against time and we need unanimity of purpose, boldness and unwavering political commitment to achieve the 1.5-degree pathway,” he said.