President William Ruto has said that the East African Community (EAC) will take the lead in pushing for sustainable actions to mitigate climate change effects.
Speaking at the EAC High-Level Forum on Climate Change and Food Security in Arusha on Thursday, Ruto insisted that only innovative and sustainable measures will help the region fight the vice properly.
He said such measures will be assumed by the East African Community ahead of COP28, which will be held in Dubai from November 30.
“If there is one thing we should achieve at COP28 is climate financing through climate investment,” Ruto told his colleagues Samia Suluhu Hassan (Tanzania), Evariste Ndayishimiye (Burundi) and Salva Kiir (South Sudan).
Ruto said Africa will showcase its assets and why it is best placed to lead the climate change mitigation efforts, including a hardworking and skilled human capital, immense renewable energy reserves and the largest swathes of uncultivated arable land.
He said such resources offer the globe the best opportunity for global green industrialisation and thus the ability to decarbonise manufacturing.
Ruto noted that Africa will be calling for the signing of a new charter on financing.
He said the new model will reform the current international financial system, which is not suited to the climate change era.
“The new charter should be on new ways of financing that are climate sensitive and support positive growth,” he said.
Ruto added that Kenya, the EAC and Africa, are building a global coalition that will help give the world the necessary new dawn that will aid in mitigating the effects of climate change.
Other leaders present were Rwanda Prime Minister Edouardo Ngirente and Ms Rebecca Kadaga, the First Deputy Prime Minister of Uganda.
Ruto has been at the forefront of championing a change in climate change financing to help middle-income countries better fight the environmental crisis largely caused by rich nations.