Klimabrev til norsk minister fra kenyanske ungdommer!
Written November 18. 2006 in
UncategorizedDear Norwegian Politicians, 15th November 2006 Change Agents Kenya is an association of young people in Kenya. We are a campaign, advocacy and lobbying organisation that aims at highlighting issues that affect the youth in Kenya directly or indirectly.
Climate change and global warming are some of the issues that we seek to address as an organisation. This is because Kenya as a country is adversely affected by this phenomenon. Media footage of people affected of hunger due to the prolonged drought in northern Kenya has been aired by the media both locally and internationally. But this is only one of the signs as to how global warming and climate change have affected Kenya. The main reason for the sharp rise in global temperatures since the 1850s is thought to be a steep increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide - CO2 - mainly from human use of fossil fuels.
Kenya is a rich mosaic of ecosystems, ranging from the snow and ice fields of Mt. Kenya to tropical rainforests to the semi arid regions of the north. Although it has the one of the lowest per capita fossil energy use in the world, Kenya is very vulnerable to climate change because of its geographical position and because widespread poverty limits its capability to adapt.
Signs of a changing climate have already emerged: spreading of diseases, melting of glaciers in the mountains, warming temperatures in drought-prone areas, and sea-level rise and coral bleaching along the Indian Ocean coastline. A good example is Mt. Kenya's largest glacier disappearing. 92 percent of the Lewis Glacier has melted in the past 100 years! The weather has also become greatly unpredictable with rains being spread far apart but very torrential and droughts becoming unbearably long. Scientific research indicates that the extreme weather conditions have been caused by increasing carbon gases in the atmosphere. Kenya’s worst drought in 60 years was in 2001. Over four million people were affected by a severely reduced harvest, weakened livestock, and poor sanitary conditions. It is important to note that Kenya is an agricultural country with 70% of the population being dependant on peasant farming and therefore rely on the natural weather patterns. Climate change has thus increased the levels of poverty, and in some cases forced rural peasant families to shift to other places only to realise they are equally affected. Kenya is also highly dependant on tourism yet some of our world acclaimed tourist sites are at risk. For instance the rising temperatures have increased cases of tropical diseases afflicting our wild animals in the parks, and Lamu Island, a UN classified World Heritage Centre, risks being submerged by the rising levels of the Indian Ocean. One of the reasons for these problems has been caused by unregulated deforestation within Kenya in the past. Today there are intense efforts to reforest the country and already improvements are evident. But the main reason why we experience climate change is because globally there is increasing and unregulated consumption of fossil fuel due to increased industrial activities and automobile engine combustion. Kenya is suffering due to wrongs committed by rich, industrialised countries! And it is the poor who suffer the most!
Change Agents Kenya believes that all hope is not lost! Countries need to fulfil the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol and other agreements that they have committed themselves to. They also need to continue working towards a sustainable development by signing and adopting agreements beyond 2012. We believe that countries that have greatly contributed to global warming and climate change should take the lead in correcting what has already happened and preventing matters from getting worse. Climate change is real and it is accelerating across the globe. As the effects of this change combine with high levels of poverty, climate disruptions will affect more people than does war.
We, the youth of Kenya, believe that the time to act is now! The world needs to find solutions which reduce the amount of heat-trapping gases that are emitted into the atmosphere. Change Agents Kenya believes that this can be addressed through two main ways: ü Reducing the amount of fossil fuels we use to power our vehicles and industries.ü Protecting threatened forests, which store carbon in their biomass.
To achieve these, Change Agents Kenya would like to request Norway as a democratic oil producing and industrial country to meet the following demands:
- Norway should support renewable energy projects in Kenya and other developing countries.
- Norway should actively participate in the UN global bio-carbon credit project which aims at sinking excess carbon in our atmosphere.
- Norway has to reduce its emissions, at least half of what it promised in the Kyoto Protocol and buy quotas for the rest.
- Norway should not invest the “oil money” in companies whose productions contribute to environmental degradation, but rather choose “greener” options when it comes to investment.
- Norway should let the climate perspective influence the country’s development politics both in Norway and abroad.
We believe that this can be a good start to reverse climate change and global warming that are affecting the poor and will affect the future generations the most. Thanks in advance, Joshua Mayaka, Organising Secretary, Change Agents Kenya.
