Kenya - National planning on short-lived climate pollutants

Workstream:

Ongoing

started:

2020

In collaboration with the Coalition's Supporting National Planning (SNAP) Initiative, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry will be working to increase awareness and capacity for SLCP mitigation planning, to develop an Action Plan on SLCPs, and to ensure the integration of climate change and air quality planning. This work is paving the way for informed policy making and emission reduction strategies that will deliver direct in-country benefits for health and economic growth.

Objectives

Our SNAP Initiative is providing technical assistance and funding to Kenya to undertake a national planning process on short-lived climate pollutants and implement the resulting mitigation measures. Through this work we aim to:

Strengthen coordination and action on short-lived climate pollutants
Identify major emission sources, their likely evolution and mitigation potential
Assess the co-benefits of action
Prioritise the most relevant measures at national scale
Identify ways to promote and implement these mitigation measures
Incorporate short-lived climate pollutants into existing plans and activities where they are not currently considered
Support the implementation of priority measures and track progress

What we're doing

Phase I – National SLCP Planning – Started

A cooperation agreement was signed between the Coalition and the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MEF) of Kenya, operationalizing the project to reduce SLCPs through the SNAP Initiative. The project aims to increase awareness and capacity to address SLCPs at the national level by sensitizing key stakeholders to the impact of SLCPs, their link to climate change and integrated mitigation opportunities.

This support will lead to the development of a National Action Plan on SLCPs that will outline major emission sources, key mitigation actions, and a mechanism for monitoring progress. Once the plan is developed, SLCP mitigation actions will be included in relevant national planning processes to contribute toward the rapid and large-scale implementation at the national level.

The following activities are being pursued:

Set up and coordinate the project implementation, including the development of an internal unit consisting of the National CCAC Focal Point from MEF, an expert consultant, and a technical team.
Raise awareness among national stakeholders on SLCPs and build capacity of national experts on short-lived climate pollutants.
Develop an Action Plan on SLCPs for Kenya, including setting up a planning process, assessing current sectoral emission contexts, and developing an integrated analysis of greenhouse gases, SLCPs, and air pollutant emission reduction potentials using the LEAP-IBC tool.
Include SLCP actions in other national processes to increase the sustainability of the project, such as the climate planning and greenhouse gas inventory process.
Produce a roadmap for the development of a National Air Quality Management Strategy and Action Plan which can be used by MEF and its partners to mobilize funding and support needed to elaborate the document.

Why we're doing this work

Situated in East Africa, Kenya is increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change including increased temperatures, droughts, biodiversity loss. At the same time, the population of over 50 million is at risk of exposure to air pollution which exceeds the guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO), particularly in dense urban areas such as the capital city of Nairobi. This pollution poses a severe health risk to a growing population including respiratory disease and premature death and is largely caused by emissions from sources such as transportation, household energy, and agriculture.