INAUGURAL CLIMATE CHANGE FUND TASKFORCE WORKSHOP HELD AT KEFRI MUGUGA ON 18TH-20TH JULY 2017

Photo: Inaugural Climate Change Fund Taskforce Workshop at KEFRI –Muguga 18th-20th July 2017 

Kenya’s Climate Change Act was enacted in May 2016. The Act provides for a regulatory framework for enhanced response to climate change and the mechanisms and measures to achieve low carbon climate development. The Act stipulates that a Climate Change Fund shall be established which shall be a financing mechanism for priority climate actions and interventions defined in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), approved by the Government. In order to operationalize the fund, a task force with fourteen (14) members awaiting gazettement has been established. The task force will be charged with the development of the structure; regulations; resource mobilization strategy; and Monitoring, Reporting and Verification tools of the Climate Change Fund. Through the Low Emission and Climate Resilient Development (LECRD) Project, an inaugural workshop was held at KEFRI –Muguga from the 18th-20th July 2017. The workshop was attended by all the appointed task force members drawn from the National Treasury; Office of the Attorney General; Commission for Revenue Allocation (CRA); the Climate Change Directorate (CCD) and Council of Governors. There was also representation from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and LECRD Project staff. The workshop aimed at developing a common understanding of the roles and responsibilities of the taskforce members including the necessary supporting policy and legal frameworks; consensus building of the vision and modalities of the fund; developing a work plan and budget of the taskforce and preparing and finalizing the Terms of Reference (TORs) for local and international consultancies to work closely with the taskforce to support the design and operationalization of Kenya’s Climate Change Fund. By the end of the workshop, the team had understood the policy and legal frameworks that gives them operational mandate; developed TORs for the taskforce and consultancies. In addition, formulation of the work plan for the task force was successfully completed. As a way forward, the task force agreed to: (i) Engage representatives from civil society and the private sector into the taskforce, followed up by the taskforce gazettement (ii) Procure a consortium rather than individual consultants (iii) Advertise the TORs of the consortium, to initiate procuring process of the consortium by UNDP. A fully operationalized Climate Change Fund will provide Kenya the opportunity to transform the economy, to identify near term low carbon opportunities and draw from NDCs submitted to UNFCCC as well as the long term goal of the Paris Agreement that requires retaining the mean temperature of earth to well below 2˚ C.