Kenya will on Thursday, July 6, host the first-ever African edition of the Berlin Climate and Security Conference (BCSC) in Nairobi.
In a statement, Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the conference will bring together representatives of governments, International organizations, experts, and practitioners working to address the impact of climate change on global peace.
Accordingly, the forum will seek to promote outcomes and agreements that incorporate climate financing that is conflict sensitive, climate risk-informed and easily accessible for the most vulnerable.
Furthermore, the Conference will enable stakeholders to share and learn from the existing tools, expertise and experiences to promote the adoption of more apt and climate-security risk-informed action in Africa.
In his remarks, Kenya’s Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Korir Sing’oei, emphasized the need for concerted efforts toward tackling climate change, noting that it poses a major threat to peaceful coexistence among communities.
Sing’oei expressed his confidence that the collaboration with BCSC will help to augment more initiatives towards finding solutions for climate change and open new frontiers for collaboration.
“African countries can be a substantial part of the solution to the climate crisis as they are endowed with natural resources for deploying green manufacturing and industrial capacity and removing carbon at scale,” he noted.
On her part, Janani Vivekananda- the Head of the Programme, Climate Diplomacy and Security in Adelphi, called for efforts to help African countries in climate action citing indicators showing the continent carries the bulk of climate change risks.
“This confluence of vulnerability and capacity constraints should mean that countries in conflict get climate finance priority. Yet, the reality is that these countries remain the most neglected by climate finance,” Janani Vivekananda noted.
About Berlin Climate and Security Conference
The first edition of the Berlin Climate and Security Conference was was in 2019 in a partnership between Germany’s Federal Foreign Office and Aldephi- an independent think tank and leading international public policy consultancy on climate, environment and development.
Since then, the BCSc takes place annually, bringing together various stakeholders with the goal of advancing the discourse on how to address climate change challenges in light of underlying issues such as conflict and vulnerability.
In addition, Nairobi’s edition will come in the lead up to the African Climate Summit which is set for September in the Kenyan Capital.
The summit will lay ground for the adoption of Africa’s common stance ahead of the upcoming COP28 in 2024.
In June 2023, Kenya also hosted the Africa Energy Forum, aef, the first on mainland Africa.