The growing frequency and intensity of environmental challenges are threatening poverty reduction efforts and sustainable development, says Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi.
Mudavadi is warning that without urgent action, declining ecosystem resilience will worsen water scarcity, food insecurity, disease outbreaks, and extreme weather events.
Speaking at the 20th ordinary session of the African Ministerial Conference on Environment (AMCEN) with the theme: ‘Four Decades of Environmental Action in Africa: Reflecting on the Past and Imagining the Future,’ held at the UNEP headquarters in Nairobi, Mudavadi said that rising global temperatures that have exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold above the pre-industrial shows the inadequacies in global efforts to combat climate change.
“The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported that the average global temperature in 2024 exceeded the critical 1.5°C threshold above the pre-industrial levels. This alarming trend underscores the inadequacy of current global efforts to combat climate change,” said the Prime Cabinet Secretary.
He expressed concern on a report by the United Nations that estimates that nearly one million species are at risk of extinction due to climate change, “a gloom prospect that could become reality if we fail to curb the unsustainable use of land, water, and energy, and fall short of meeting the 2030 biodiversity conservation targets.”
Mudavadi said Kenya is moving towards becoming a green economy with 90 per cent of her energy being renewable energy and the efforts being made to deal with pollution, including the policy ban on manufacture, use and importation of plastic carrier bags.
“Since 2017, we have taken strong action against plastic pollution, including a nationwide ban on the manufacture, use, and importation of plastic carrier bags,” he said and added, “We also remain committed to biodiversity conservation through the protection and management of national parks, reserves, and marine ecosystems.”
While applauding the collective efforts that led to the successful designation of UNEP in Nairobi as the interim host of the Science-Policy Panel Secretariat during the recent meeting in Uruguay, Mudavadi appealed for the continued strengthening of UNEP by advancing the full consolidation of its headquarters functions in Nairobi, “as reaffirmed at the Rio+20 Conference thirteen years ago,” and to further anchor Nairobi’s role as a global environmental hub.
