AFRICA MUST ADOPT TO CHANGING CLIMATE OR PERISH

Increasingly people in countries such as Kenya are beginning to experience the effects of climate change at very basic level and in very significant ways: they lack food and water and other very basic needs have been compromised by what can be directly and indirectly attributed to the changing climate.

The climate scientists and panel of experts under the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will tell you that climate change is the long-term changes of the average weather pattern of a specific region as a result of rising temperatures, attributed to emission of Greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

To the Kenyan farmer and cattle keeper in Baringo climate change is the lack of rains, the dying of livestock and the drying of rivers and withering of crops. And this is how climate change must be defined in Kenya, of we stand a chance to categorically deal with it – it must be defined and described in livelihood terms rather than abstract scientific lingo.

Having defined the phenomenon in livelihood terms, we need to move further and find practical solution that will address the livelihood issues. The facts are clear about who has caused and is continuing to exacerbate climate change and global warming: the developed countries that emit tons of Greenhouse gases into the atmosphere in their bid to quench their greed for affluent lifestyles! And since we as Kenyans and people in developing countries did not because the mess in the first place, we need to demand that the rich industrialized countries take action to mitigate climate change by cutting their emissions.

But what can Kenyans do to save us from the imminent extinction. If you think I am exaggerating, imagine how bad it will be when it stops raining completely, lakes and rivers dry, crops fail, and people in their millions are unable to get food to eat or water to drink or any economic activity. You don’t even have to imagine – this is already happening to more than 10 million Kenyans!

The solution lies is adapting to the serious ‘new climatic conditions’. We either do this, or we face the fate of the dinosaur and the dodo! Those two species are no longer with us because they did not adapt to the changing world for whatever reasons.

Adapting in practical terms means farmers have to change their crops to those that can survive lack of rain and higher temperatures, other farmers have to practice inter cropping to try and meet their own food needs; irrigation and altering time for production. Rainwater harvesting, sand dams have to be new strategies to deal with the increasing water stress.

These adaptive strategies are useful, but insufficient because communities affected cannot afford them. Furthermore, our government and other institutions seem to be weak and ill prepared both in terms of capacity and funds to meet their adaptation needs of Kenyans. As such, for Kenya and other poor regions of the world to adapt to climate change, they must be supported by the countries that caused climate change. Our government on the other hand must proactively begin to ‘climate-proof’ our planning and put on some climate lenses as it plans and implements development programmes.

The Bali action plan envisions action on adaptation as an integral part of a post Kyoto deal.  There must be a vision to develop coherency in adaptation action under the UNFCCC, which includes identifying adequate and predictable funding mechanisms that can be operationalised effectively and rapidly. But most importantly; it must reach the poor and vulnerable so that they are guaranteed a future. 

The best way for Kenya to adapt to climate change is development. Does the much popularized Vision 2030 have plans for dealing with climate change? Did our fiscal budget in June reflect the need to adapt to the changing climate? It would be a terrible thing if as Kenyans we bury our collective heads in the sand and hope that climate change is a myth that will go away.

At the political level, Kenya as a signatory of the climate convention must play its role as the leader of this region, to present a very strong position at the 19^th Conference of Parties (COP 19)  Such a position must demand for a fair and equitable deal, and prioritize adaptation needs developing countries as well as demand for deeper cuts of emissions by the rich industrialized countries.

BY IVY  RONOH