SIERRA LEONE AND KENYA TO JOIN FORCES AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE IN S’LEONE.
By Ferdinand Olise
The President of Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Bio has called for a collaboration through a South-South cooperation to undertake necessary climate change assessments and formulation of a similar program in Sierra Leone.
President Bio who stated this at the ongoing Africa Climate Change Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, jointly organized the African Union and the Kenyan government, said he intends to replicate the Kenyan initiative, noting that, Sierra Leone will learn from Kenya and replicate the East African nation’s home grown approach to dealing with the impact of climate change.
“Sierra Leone faced imminent environmental catastrophe if urgent action wasn’t taken, noting that Kenya’s Financing Locally Led Climate Action (FLLoCA) approach was a great example of a home grown solution to a home grown problem”, President Bio said.
The FLLoCA is a programme by the Kenyan government designed to enhance the delivery of locally-led climate resilience actions in order to increase communities’ resilience to climate change, and other hazards.
“We hope our donor partners will be encouraged to support this learning model among African countries. Such cooperation could shorten the time for the design of various programs. It could also help countries move faster into developing bankable projects to crowd in more significant private investment flow.” President Bio said.
The Africa Climate Summit, the first ever to be convened on the continent, started in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi amidst growing concern over the threat of climate crisis on Africa.
The initiative seeks to map out a way for the region to finance and tackle its climate change problems without relying on foreign partners for funding.
Meanwhile, Kenyan President, William Ruto launched the initiative on the sidelines of the Africa Climate Summit 2023.
President Ruto who heads the Committee of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change, said that for a very long time they have looked at this as a problem, and that there are immense opportunities as well.
According to the agenda of the summit, stakeholders in their deliberations wil come up with a declaration, to be known as, “Nairobi Declaration,” a blueprint for Africa’s green energy transition”.
This Declaration will spell out its position on hpw to mitigate climate crisis.
The summit also coincided with the Africa Climate Week, with the theme: “Driving green growth and climate finance solutions for Africa and the world”.
Kenya which derives 90 percent of its electricity needs from renewable energies like geothermal energy, wind and hydropower, is considered as a leader in efforts to tackle climate change.
However, Africa is considered as most vulnerably hit by the impact of climate change. A United Nations data shows that, Africa accounts for only 2 to 3 percent of the world’s carbon emissions.
Sierra Leone is listed among the top 20 countries on the continent mostly affected by the environmental crisis. This was observed in the recurrent disasters such as flooding, landslides, and mudslides, with devastating impacts.
According to a 2022 United Nations, UN, estimate, Africa is losing between $7bn and $15bn annually due to climate change. Also, to mitigate the effects of climate change on the region, Africa must raise an average of $124bn annually.
Also in the quest to mitigate the effects of climate change, there have been calls on richer nations to honour the $100bn-a-year pledge made at COP15 in Copenhagen, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help African countries cope with the climate crisis.
This will greatly mitigate the impact of climate change and environmental hazards in Africa.
