UNEP chief says Kenya could lead Africa in green finance

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) says Kenya is well placed to lead the African continent in embracing green finance in order to ensure sustainable development.

Outgoing UNEP Executive Director, Achim Steiner, told a finance forum in Nairobi on Saturday that Kenya had already developed a vibrant finance sector with a regulator that is internationally recognized for enabling financial inclusion.

"The next great step forward for Kenya is to become a global innovative center for green finance and sustainable finance," Steiner said during the CEO Roundtable on Sustainable Finance.

Steiner said Kenya was well positioned to be a country where the finance sector plays a leading role for the benefit of Kenya and the African continent.

Many of Kenya's financial institutions are active in markets across East Africa.

Steiner said the government can only be a catalyzer or trigger of the development of green finance, emphasizing the importance of the role that the private sector plays.

"It is the private sector that will put the kind of investment required to achieve a sustainable and a green financial industry," he said.

He said Kenya's green energy policy and infrastructure was the living proof of how quickly changes can happen.

"The country has transformed its energy sector in less than one decade and has managed to attract millions of U.S. dollars of private sector funds into the renewable energy sector," he said.

According to UNEP, renewable energy has now emerged as a short cut to access to energy in Africa.

Steiner called for an Africa where it no longer buys phased out factories from the rest of the world.

"Africa instead should be at the fore front of embracing a decarbonized development pathway," he said. Endit