OPINION

Corruption and climate change are arguably the defining challenges facing the worldtoday. Both problems - and their solutions - are interlinked. In particular, corruption is one of the driving forces behind deforestation and forest degradation, a major cause of climate change (according to the UN, deforestation and forest degradation account for around17 cent of carbon emissions worldwide).  

Interventions to reduce deforestation and forest degradation therefore have totake corruption risks into account.There have to be robust anti-corruption mechanisms and sound governance systems in placeto ensure thatforests are preserved transparently and accountably.

The United Nations Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) mechanism, seeks to conserve forests in developing countries.

Although Kenya’s work on REDD+ began in 2008, little progress has been made in implementing it to conserve the country’s forests.

In 2013, a corruption risk assessment for REDD+ in Kenya prescribeda range of recommendations for different stakeholders. As a result, the Kenya Task Force on Anti-Corruption for REDD+ was established, and operated between 2014 and 2015.Aiming to enhance dialogue among different stakeholdersabout the relationshipbetween REDD+ and corruption, it brought together national actors working on forest governance, anti-corruption and transparency.

Until recently, corruption and governance were not major parts of conversations in relation to forest conservation. As a result, many REDD+stakeholders in Kenya and the world over had a limitedunderstanding of theconnection between corruption and REDD+ - corruption is almost always a significant factor in the illegal exploitation of forest areas and thus threatens initiatives such as REDD+. The majority of countries that are heavily forested and benefiting from REDD+ are also those where corruption is perceived to be high and corruption is often endemic in the forestry sector of these countries. A new report from Transparency International Kenya found that the taskforce managed to quicklyfill the knowledge gapthrough consultation and information sharing.

The taskforce achieved significant milestones, notably bringing the anti-corruption and transparency agenda into the centre of REDD+ processes.

Additionally, the taskforce brought together an unusually diverse blend of stakeholders in a country with numerous tensions between government institutions, civil society and indigenous communities. This collaboration enabled progressive dialogue about corruption and governance to take place in various parts of the forestry sector.

The taskforce, however, seems to have largely focused on national actors, leaving behind county-level stakeholders who are vital in the management of forests. Kenya has a highlydevolved system of governance, meaning that county governments hold considerable responsibility for forest and natural resource governance.

The taskforce encountered other significant challenges, such as resource constraints and significant staff turnover at some of its member organisations. Coupled with a lack of proper documentation of the taskforce’s work, this made it challenging for successor projects to quickly integrate and push on with the work. While these challenges did not prevent the taskforce from achieving significant milestones, they are serious considerations that should be taken into account when establishing other multi-stakeholder approaches.

Kenya’s approach to addressing these challenges in the forestry sector is worth strengthening andreplicating.Kenya is at a crucialstage of developing its framework for REDD+ implementation and the task force has immense potential to make REDD+ successful in the country.

Its founders, including the REDD+ Coordinating Office, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, and Transparency International Kenya,should consider reviving the initiative while addressing the challenges faced during its initial lifespan, including admitting county-level stakeholders.

Read the assessment report on Kenya’s Task Force on Anti-Corruption for REDD+.

Psamson Nzioki leads the Climate Governance Integrity Programme at Transparency International Kenya.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (PAMACC News) - Citizens of Africa have been urged to take advantage of investment opportunities that accompany climate action to earn some money and lift their people from poverty.
 
Secretary-General of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), Mithika Mwenda, has noted that the renewable energy revolution currently being witnessed in the world provides affordable access to energy to people who would otherwise not have access.
 
He noted that renewable energy has also aided in the reduction of emissions, thus contributing to the attainment of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) ambitions of countries.
 
“We are witnessing renewable energy revolution and in Africa and the rest of the world, this is an explosive sector,” observed Mithika. “We need to take advantage of the investment opportunities coming with climate action; there are a lot of resources in this to help address poverty”.
 
At the COP21 climate talks which produced the Paris Agreement, the G7 committed to allocate US$10 billion into the African Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI).
 
Though there are concerns with delivering the promise, the Initiative, in its current design, will help cure chronic energy poverty by supporting decentralized, modern, off-grid and people-owned energy systems not only for lighting, but also cooking, driving smallholder agribusiness and charging mobile phones.
 
Mithika added that green energy has helped save lives by reducing indoor pollution.
 
Fossil fuel vs. renewable energy economies
 
Mithika Mwenda was addressing an event on low-carbon and climate-resilient development, held on the sidelines of the 2018 African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
 
Most African countries do not contribute any significant amount of greenhouse gases but there are commitments in their NDCs to ensure that their development pathways are carbon neutral.
 
In a climate-constrained world, investment in fossil fuel-based energy sources no longer makes sense.
 
But Africa faces the dilemma of whether to rapidly revert to renewable energy, have a mix of both fossil fuels and renewables, or ignore the global call and continue in the unsustainable model of development pursued by industrialized countries which brought the climate crisis.
 
What is evident, though, is the fact that the global community has shifted.
 
This shift should make African countries re-think their priority energy sources and investment in oil and in some instances coal, as it may not make economic sense in the long-run.
 
The Addis Ababa side-event, attended by climate actors from across the continent, is organized strategically to get African leaders to focus attention on climate change issues.
 
As the first Pan African convention after the COP23, the event offered an opportunity to exchange ideas and reflect on Africa’s victories during the Bonn Climate Change Conference, with a view of charting a collective path towards subsequent Global Dialogue processes on the subject.
 
“This gives us the platform to develop common African narratives that will have impact on the global stage,” said James Murombedzi, Officer-in-Charge of the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
 
Moving along the development pathway
 
Climate change is no longer discussed as a limited environmental or scientific matter but as a development issue.
 
African civil society therefore looks forward to leaders moving from the rhetoric to taking real action on the ground.
 
“The momentum for the implementation of the Paris Agreement and the NDCs is picking up, but the question is: are we moving with that pace in Africa?” queried Mithika.
 
Some countries on the continent have developed very effective policy and legal frameworks to facilitate the implementation in the areas of transparency, adaptation, loss and damage, among others.
 
But there are others stuck on bureaucracies to push the climate agenda forward.
 
“We need to think broader about what is the impact of climate change on development. What does it mean for agriculture? What does it mean for energy, for infrastructure? So we are really talking about development,” said Mithika.
 
He believes that the ClimDev-Africa programme can rally the African continent around in mobilizing action and “we need to ensure that critical centres that support the livelihoods of the African people and which are weather sensitive like agriculture are created”.
 
The Climate for Development in Africa (ClimDev-Africa) Programme is an initiative of the African Union Commission (AUC), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Development Bank (AfDB), established to create a solid foundation for Africa’s response to climate change.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (PAMACC News) - Citizens of Africa have been urged to take advantage of investment opportunities that accompany climate action to earn some money and lift their people from poverty.
 
Secretary-General of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), Mithika Mwenda, has noted that the renewable energy revolution currently being witnessed in the world provides affordable access to energy to people who would otherwise not have access.
 
He noted that renewable energy has also aided in the reduction of emissions, thus contributing to the attainment of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) ambitions of countries.
 
“We are witnessing renewable energy revolution and in Africa and the rest of the world, this is an explosive sector,” observed Mithika. “We need to take advantage of the investment opportunities coming with climate action; there are a lot of resources in this to help address poverty”.
 
At the COP21 climate talks which produced the Paris Agreement, the G7 committed to allocate US$10 billion into the African Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI).
 
Though there are concerns with delivering the promise, the Initiative, in its current design, will help cure chronic energy poverty by supporting decentralized, modern, off-grid and people-owned energy systems not only for lighting, but also cooking, driving smallholder agribusiness and charging mobile phones.
 
Mithika added that green energy has helped save lives by reducing indoor pollution.
 
Fossil fuel vs. renewable energy economies
 
Mithika Mwenda was addressing an event on low-carbon and climate-resilient development, held on the sidelines of the 2018 African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
 
Most African countries do not contribute any significant amount of greenhouse gases but there are commitments in their NDCs to ensure that their development pathways are carbon neutral.
 
In a climate-constrained world, investment in fossil fuel-based energy sources no longer makes sense.
 
But Africa faces the dilemma of whether to rapidly revert to renewable energy, have a mix of both fossil fuels and renewables, or ignore the global call and continue in the unsustainable model of development pursued by industrialized countries which brought the climate crisis.
 
What is evident, though, is the fact that the global community has shifted.
 
This shift should make African countries re-think their priority energy sources and investment in oil and in some instances coal, as it may not make economic sense in the long-run.
 
The Addis Ababa side-event, attended by climate actors from across the continent, is organized strategically to get African leaders to focus attention on climate change issues.
 
As the first Pan African convention after the COP23, the event offered an opportunity to exchange ideas and reflect on Africa’s victories during the Bonn Climate Change Conference, with a view of charting a collective path towards subsequent Global Dialogue processes on the subject.
 
“This gives us the platform to develop common African narratives that will have impact on the global stage,” said James Murombedzi, Officer-in-Charge of the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
 
Moving along the development pathway
 
Climate change is no longer discussed as a limited environmental or scientific matter but as a development issue.
 
African civil society therefore looks forward to leaders moving from the rhetoric to taking real action on the ground.
 
“The momentum for the implementation of the Paris Agreement and the NDCs is picking up, but the question is: are we moving with that pace in Africa?” queried Mithika.
 
Some countries on the continent have developed very effective policy and legal frameworks to facilitate the implementation in the areas of transparency, adaptation, loss and damage, among others.
 
But there are others stuck on bureaucracies to push the climate agenda forward.
 
“We need to think broader about what is the impact of climate change on development. What does it mean for agriculture? What does it mean for energy, for infrastructure? So we are really talking about development,” said Mithika.
 
He believes that the ClimDev-Africa programme can rally the African continent around in mobilizing action and “we need to ensure that critical centres that support the livelihoods of the African people and which are weather sensitive like agriculture are created”.
 
The Climate for Development in Africa (ClimDev-Africa) Programme is an initiative of the African Union Commission (AUC), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Development Bank (AfDB), established to create a solid foundation for Africa’s response to climate change.

OPINION

Corruption and climate change are arguably the defining challenges facing the worldtoday. Both problems - and their solutions - are interlinked. In particular, corruption is one of the driving forces behind deforestation and forest degradation, a major cause of climate change (according to the UN, deforestation and forest degradation account for around17 cent of carbon emissions worldwide).  

Interventions to reduce deforestation and forest degradation therefore have totake corruption risks into account.There have to be robust anti-corruption mechanisms and sound governance systems in placeto ensure thatforests are preserved transparently and accountably.

The United Nations Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) mechanism, seeks to conserve forests in developing countries.

Although Kenya’s work on REDD+ began in 2008, little progress has been made in implementing it to conserve the country’s forests.

In 2013, a corruption risk assessment for REDD+ in Kenya prescribeda range of recommendations for different stakeholders. As a result, the Kenya Task Force on Anti-Corruption for REDD+ was established, and operated between 2014 and 2015.Aiming to enhance dialogue among different stakeholdersabout the relationshipbetween REDD+ and corruption, it brought together national actors working on forest governance, anti-corruption and transparency.

Until recently, corruption and governance were not major parts of conversations in relation to forest conservation. As a result, many REDD+stakeholders in Kenya and the world over had a limitedunderstanding of theconnection between corruption and REDD+ - corruption is almost always a significant factor in the illegal exploitation of forest areas and thus threatens initiatives such as REDD+. The majority of countries that are heavily forested and benefiting from REDD+ are also those where corruption is perceived to be high and corruption is often endemic in the forestry sector of these countries. A new report from Transparency International Kenya found that the taskforce managed to quicklyfill the knowledge gapthrough consultation and information sharing.

The taskforce achieved significant milestones, notably bringing the anti-corruption and transparency agenda into the centre of REDD+ processes.

Additionally, the taskforce brought together an unusually diverse blend of stakeholders in a country with numerous tensions between government institutions, civil society and indigenous communities. This collaboration enabled progressive dialogue about corruption and governance to take place in various parts of the forestry sector.

The taskforce, however, seems to have largely focused on national actors, leaving behind county-level stakeholders who are vital in the management of forests. Kenya has a highlydevolved system of governance, meaning that county governments hold considerable responsibility for forest and natural resource governance.

The taskforce encountered other significant challenges, such as resource constraints and significant staff turnover at some of its member organisations. Coupled with a lack of proper documentation of the taskforce’s work, this made it challenging for successor projects to quickly integrate and push on with the work. While these challenges did not prevent the taskforce from achieving significant milestones, they are serious considerations that should be taken into account when establishing other multi-stakeholder approaches.

Kenya’s approach to addressing these challenges in the forestry sector is worth strengthening andreplicating.Kenya is at a crucialstage of developing its framework for REDD+ implementation and the task force has immense potential to make REDD+ successful in the country.

Its founders, including the REDD+ Coordinating Office, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, and Transparency International Kenya,should consider reviving the initiative while addressing the challenges faced during its initial lifespan, including admitting county-level stakeholders.

Read the assessment report on Kenya’s Task Force on Anti-Corruption for REDD+.

Psamson Nzioki leads the Climate Governance Integrity Programme at Transparency International Kenya.