President Uhuru Kenyatta's plan for Kenya to secure the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) seat in June 2020 is hinged on the ongoing debate around climate change.
Reports from Climate Home News, an independent media outlet dedicated to climate news, indicated on Tuesday, December 18, that President Kenyatta's bargaining chip was the strides that his government has been able to make in an effort to combat climate change.
The sentiments by the publication were echoed by Foreign Affairs CS Monica Juma when addressing a conference on environmental governance and diplomacy in Nairobi in October 2019.
“Our pursuit for solutions on global challenges convinces us that we are well placed to contribute constructively in the UN Security Council,” she lobbied.
The country has a highly elaborate plan identified as the National Climate Action Plan 2018-2022, which is founded upon the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
This blueprint has enabled the government to invest in disaster risk management, food and nutrition security, water and the blue economy, forestry, wildlife and tourism and energy and transport.
The results of the government's adherence to the blueprint were seen in the 2019 Climatescope Index released by the Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF2019), which ranked Kenya fifth in the world in green energy sufficiency, a rank way above its peers.
President Kenyatta has also been a vocal proponent of the implementation of sustainable blue economy programs, intimating in September 2019, that the shrinking land-based resources won't be adequate to sustain a rising world population in the long run, hence the need for countries to factor the blue economy in development planning.
Kenya ranks above many countries in the world, including developed countries, in terms of its adherence to clean energy and in its efforts to mitigate climate change.
As of December 4, 2018, the president announced that the government had added 364 Megawatts (MW) to the national grid, which included 310 MW from Lake Turkana Wind Farm, and 54 MW from Garissa Solar Plant.
If Kenya is voted into the UNSC seat, it will be among the few countries in the world tasked with maintaining international peace and security, including imposing sanctions and military aid when international peace is threatened.
Kenya is the African candidate in the high-stakes elections set to be held in June 2020.
