Kenya’s private sector holds the key to fighting the effects of climate change in the country by forging alliances that would unlock capital flows into green projects, a German-backed climate agency has said.
Officials from Global NDC Implementation Partners (GNIplus), which is funded by the German International Climate Initiative, on Thursday called upon the private sector players to be innovative not only in designing green projects but also in structuring green financial products.
“We will never meet the climate targets without the private sector. Most of the finance for mitigation and adaptation of climate change will come from the private sector and we need to get them engaged earlier and work out where the barriers are in order to catalyze that finance and make sure we can attract more investments in Kenya” Anna Balm of GNIplus said in Nairobi at a climate financing conference organised by Kenya Private Sector Alliance (Kepsa).
According to National Climate Action Plan 2018-2022 report prepared by the Ministry of Environment, the economic cost of climate change brought home by floods and droughts is estimated to have a fiscal liability equivalent to 2-2.8% of gross domestic product (GDP) per year. Kenya, like many African nations, is especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change since the economy is highly dependent on natural resources, more so agricultural sector.
GNIplus is working in partnership with Kenya’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry, through the Climate Change Directorate, and the Treasury to help the country achieve its nationally determined contributions (NDCs).
GNIplus is providing legal, technical and financial advice to enable Kenya to create an enabling environment to scale up public and private investment and build bankable low-carbon and climate resilient projects.
The annual tracked climate finance in 2017 and 2018 crossed the $500 billion mark for the first time. However, climate finance across sub-Saharan Africa was only 3% of the total.
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