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UEMI in Kenya |
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Kenya is committed to reduce its GHG emissions by 30% by 2030, relative to a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario (baseline 2010) of predicted 143 MtCO2e in 2030. Kenya´s National Strategy aims to curb greenhouse gas such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) in sectors, such as energy, transportation, industrial processes, agriculture, forestry and other land use and the waste sector.
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UN-Habitat is grateful for the financial supportprovided by the government of Norway for the NDC analysis this paper is based on.
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Kenya has developed an ambitious climate change strategy, which includes a pledge to reduce its GHG emissions by 30% by 2030 relative to the BAU scenario of 143 million tCO2eq in line with its sustainable development agenda. The Republic of Kenya (Kenya) is situated on the equator on the African continent’s east coast, bordering the Indian Ocean between Somalia, Tanzania, South Sudan, Uganda and Ethiopia. Kenya is home to 49.69 million people living on a total land area size of 582.646 km2 consisting of 11,230km2 of water surface and 571,416k km2 of land area – with an urban population growth rate of 4.3% per year and a growing share of its population living in urban areas. By 2050 about half the population is estimated to be living in cities (World Bank, 2016). The urban population of Kenya is concentrated along the Northern Corridor, which has led to the development of three urban hubs, the central hub (with Nairobi the focus city); the coastal hub (centralised around Mombasa); and the western hub (around the urban centers of Kisumu, Eldoret, Kericho, and Nakuru). The World Bank estimates that Kenya’s capital city, Nairobi, will become home to 6 million people by 2030 currently Nairobi is home to 4 million people (World Bank, 2016).
It is the fifth-largest economy in sub-Saharan Africa with a gross domestic product (GDP) of USD 60.9 billion, a GDP per capita of USD 1.246 and gross national income (GNI) per capita of USD 1,280 in 2014 (World Bank, 2016). Approximately 42 per cent of Kenya’s national GDP is derived from its natural resource sectors (agriculture, forestry, fishing, water supply and energy). The services sector (which includes transport and communications, wholesale and retail trade, and financial and other services) accounts for about half of GDP. The industrial sector (manufacturing, construction, mining and quarrying) contributes the remaining 10 percent (WorldBank,2014). The employment to population ratio percentage ages 15 and older is 60.9% (UN Human Development Reports, 2016). Kenya’s economy was evaluated to have been performing well even though in 2017 it experienced a prolonged election period and a severe drought (IMF, 2018). The IMF has further concluded, during its March 2018 visit, that “Kenya’s external current account deficit rose to an estimated 6.4 per-cent of GDP in 2017 from 5.2 percent in 2016, reflecting higher imports, including fuel. The exchange rate has remained stable and foreign exchange reserves have risen to US$7.1 billion as of end-January 2018 and are sufficient to withstand any potential near term external shocks”. Kenya is committed to reduce its GHG emissions by 30% by 2030, relative to business-as-usual (BAU) scenario (baseline 2010) of predicated 143 MtCO2e in 2030. Addressing climate change in a holistic manner will benefit Kenya to also address the other socio-economic challenges. By failing to address climate change in a multi-sectoral approach, Kenya will risk a further deterioration of the nation’s GDP, resulting in greater unemployment and worsening poverty. Historically Kenya contribution of total global emission per capita is low (less than 1.26 MtCO2e) compared to the global average of 7,58 MtCO2e. Emissions in Kenya are still relatively low in comparison to other countries (73 MtCO2e in 2010). Yet, carbon emissions started to increase from 1995 and this trend is likely to continue by 2030 (Kenya’s National Action Plan, 2013). Moreover, Kenya’s National Strategy aims to curb greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N20) in sectors such as energy, transportation, industrial processes, agriculture, forestry and other land use and waste sector. Their planning process will include a review of the National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP) and the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) through the National Climate Change Secretariat (NCCS) every five years. Through the regular review process, theNational Strategy also streamlines the climate change mechanism in all relevant ministries and will oversee the Kenyan Climate Fund. Kenya has committed to achieve its NDC targets based on existing laws and national policies. In recent years, its legislature has developed a National Climate Change Response Strategy (NCCRS, 2010), a National Adaptation Plan (NAP) and a Climate Change Act (2016) to curb the increasing emissions in the country. |
The United Nations’ New Urban Agenda (NUA) aims to set a new global standard for sustainable urban development, especially focusing on how we rethink our planning, management and living within our cities. The aim of this paper is to briefly review the policy environment in the Republic of Kenya in its development and implementation of the NUA with a specific focus on energy, mobility and resource (waste) management. This paper’s analysis conducts a overview of the policy making process and institutional make-up towards climate change adaptation and mitigation.
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Governance and institutions
Kenya is a unitary state with a multi-party political system and is generally described as a middle-income country due to its comparative wealth yet its societal reality experience displays huge differences between the development of its rural and urban areas and population (Campbell, 2018). Kenya’s Constitution (2013) provides for two autonomous but interdependent levels of government; a national and county level administrations. This two-tier government system consists of a national government and 47 autonomous county governments. This system provides of devolution governance structure, giving country governments an integral role in service delivery. Kenya is regarded as East Africa’s largest economy with the port city of Mombasa and the capital Nairobi being the economic gateway to East Africa. In 2017, Kenyan marked the 60th anniversary of democratic elections and again went to the polls to elected a new leader. National Government The re-drafted and adopted constitution of 2010 also changed the political power structures, infusing more checks and balances within the Kenyan political landscape – decentralising power to county level assemblies, governors, senators and special representatives. The electoral ballot now allows for Kenyans to vote for a president, members of parliament and six officials from the local level up. Moreover, Kenya now has 47 county administrations which have more control over their financial resources at the local level and have impacted on spending in geographical areas that have been neglected in the past. Political environment The political landscape of Kenya has been dominated by numerous factors that affect the policy environment and governance stability – these include, political instability and institutional transparency. In 2010, the Kenyan constitution was amended to try and address some of these negative disruptions. The changes to the 2010 constitution include a devolution of power and resources, reduced power of the executive by altering the structure of government and giving parliament more oversight, the creation of a citizen’s Bill of Rights and a land commission (Greste, 2010). |
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Nairobi is the capital of Kenya and is located on the edge of the country's agricultural region of the central highlands and 1800 meters above sea level - this contributes to lower average temperatures and creates an area where rainfall is relatively higher than in the surrounding areas. Nairobi as a city was established by the colonial powers in the late 1890s, initially as a railway camp, and now is the second largest city by population size in the Great Lakes region – after Dar es Salaam in Tanzania – and is Africa’s Green City in the Sun and East Africa’s economic powerhouse (World Bank, 2016). The metropolitan City of Nairobi is regarded as Kenya engine for economic growth and more than a third of the urban population lives in the City of Nairobi (and Mombasa). It is also home to the UN-Habitat and UN-Environment organisation’s headquarters, IBM, Intel and Google also use Nairobi as their base for its African operations. An estimated 3.9 million people live in the City of Nairobi (The Conversation, 2018) – this is a double since the 1986 census (Metcalf, J. 2016). Population density in Nairobi varies greatly, peaking in the city’s slums, which house roughly 2.5 million people in about 200 settlements. Roughly 60 percent of Nairobi’s population occupies just 6 percent of the land.
Transport Residents of Nairobi have been burdened with an unsafe urban transportation system that have seen 447 pedestrians killed in 2015 from traffic-related incidents on the streets of Nairobi (Klopp, J. M. 2017). Nairobi historically has invested heavily in a car-centric development – with large investments in highways and expanding road networks. With rising urbanisation the City of Nairobi has seen a rise in pollution, congestion and obesity. Interestingly, just 12% of Nairobi’s population use private vehicles and most other people rely on the public transport system. In 2017, Nairobi took the first steps to redress its problems by passing the Non-Motorized Transport Policy – the new policy aims to develop the city toward a more inclusive transport modal design. |
A unique model of electric light-duty three-wheeler and an electric handcart has been developed by a start-up company based in Kenya for use in light goods transportation and Taxi services in major Cities and towns across Kenya with the possibility of up-scaling to other regions of Sub-Saharan Africa and beyond. The company is also at an advanced stage of developing a utility component that will enable his three-wheelers and handcarts to self- recharging with very little motion that will be known as Regenerative Motion Recharging System (RMRS), a technology that will enable EVs self-recharge through kinetic motion and which will completely eliminate the need for external power source like fuel or electricity plug in for operation.
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In 2017, the Kenyan Bureau of Standards began working on new rules for vehicles in Kenya. This re-standarisation includes policy that stresses that vehicles in Kenya, going forward, will be approved for use only if they emit no carbon monoxide or other poisonous matter into the environment. Although infrastructure for EVs in Kenya are at an infant stage and roll out would take a substantial amount of financing and human capital investment. While the rollout of EVs will create new jobs in the market, it will also cause a labour disruption, as labourers will need to be up skilled for the new market realities. Kenya will also need to maintain a supply of replacement parts to ensure vehicles can be maintained as needed. Auto manufactures including Audi and Jaguar have released plans to market their first electric vehicles in Kenya by 2019. Nigus Enfinity, an auto manufacturer from Nigeria plans to introduce an electric car by 2018 and they want to have an assembly factory in Kenya by the year 2020. In addition, a private vehicle operator from Finland , EkoRent, expanded its electric taxi service to Nairobi in 2018, with the local company name EkoRent Africa and the Nopia Ride as the local service which is also Kenyan first fully electric taxi hailing service in the country. Nopia Ride has set a target of expanding its fleet to 150 cars by the end of 2019 and 1500 vehciles by end of 2021. These vehicles can be easily charged around Nairobi in several located Nopia Charging Bays. Nopia’s electric cars are low in lifecycle carbon footprint - overall, batteries of electric vehicles can be used for about 10-15 years and even after the power capacity of the batteries declines, they can still be used for years after, for example, as home energy storage. In the latter part of 2018, the Kenyan National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) announced that Kenyan administrators where developing standards in readiness for the extended penetration of EVs in the market. Moreover, the NTSA was also in the process of integrating electric 2-wheeler and 3-wheelers into the existing urban transport modes. Extensive and integrated EV policy from the national government has yet to be drafted.
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