East Africa validates strategy to tackle climate change

Eight African countries have validated a strategy aimed at addressing human-induced climate change in the region which has been hit hard by vagaries of global warming, according to the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD).

The organization noted on Monday that the strategy, also known as IRCCS, aimed to support member states in their efforts to follow low-carbon climate resilient sustainable development as well as identify and prioritize the major climate challenges and opportunities in the region and strategic areas of interventions.

Director of IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre Gulied Artan said validation is just in time when all nations in general and developed country parties in particular have adopted an ambitious agreement dubbed the "Paris Agreement" to limit the global warming below 2°C.

"It also came at a time when the region was missing a regional climate change strategy that could be used to harmonize and consolidate national and regional efforts and focus on adaption to climate change consequences as well as on mitigation measures," Artan said.

Charles Sunkuli, Kenya's Principal Secretary in the State Department of Environment, Natural Resource and Regional Development Authorities, said the IGAD region was among the most vulnerable to the vagaries of climate change, as manifested through an increase in the frequency and magnitude of extreme events such as droughts and floods.

In Kenya, he said, efforts have been made to mainstream climate change into the national development agenda through the second medium term plan of 2013-2017 period.

The IGAD member states comprises of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda. Enditem