Kenyan hosts summit to push for science-led solution to climate crisis in Africa
More than 500 delegates attended the forum to discuss the green transition ahead of the 30th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change slated for Belem, Brazil, on Nov. 10-21.
Ali Mohamed, climate envoy in Kenya's Office of the President, urged scholars to provide evidence and training to bridge the gap between science, policy, and community action in managing climate change on the continent.
He noted that industrial and energy policy roadmaps should start embracing internal knowledge as opposed to borrowing ideas from outside the continent, adding that most of the time, foreign ideas embed assumptions misaligned with African realities and aspirations.
Mohamed said Kenya, in collaboration with its partners, is rapidly emerging as a hub for innovation, with enterprises focusing on clean cooking solutions and e-mobility.
"These innovators are not only accelerating access to clean cooking and clean transport, but are also strengthening local manufacturing, building homegrown industries, and creating thousands of jobs for Kenya's youth," Mohamed said.
Laban Ayiro, vice chancellor of Daystar University, a Nairobi-based private university, said academia has an opportunity to make milestones in the global climate agenda by bridging the gap between research and society.
He called on scholars and the private sector to forge partnerships that transcend silos and elevate indigenous knowledge, while offering solutions to climate emergencies devastating the African continent.
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