The move by Kenya parliament to slash climate change funding by 50 per cent to counties risks eroding gains made in combating the adverse effects of climate change in the country.

In the current financial year, parliament reduced funding for climate actions from Ksh9 billion ($6.95 million) to Ksh4.9 billion ($3.78 million) a move that exposes the country to the vagaries of nature.

In the past, Kenyans have incurred huge losses running into billions of shillings due to adverse effects of climate change such as increased flooding and prolonged drought seasons.

According to Finance Locally – Led Climate Actions (FLLoCA) coordinator Peter Odhengo, the move to slash the budget for climate actions will be detrimental to the country mitigation responses.

Odhengo said the fund supports counties’ climate-led action plans at ward levels to cushion the most vulnerable groups through local solutions.

Currently, Odhengo said the programme has funded 2, 145 projects across 1,350 wards across the country within four key sectors of water, smart agriculture, disaster risk management and clean cooking.

Odhengo said that for counties to benefit from the fund, they must allocate 1.5 per cent of their development budgets to climate change action programmes adding that this year, 42 counties have contributed Ksh8.2 billion ($63.3 million) to the kitty.

Speaking in Naivasha during an engagement with Senate Committee on Environment, Odhengo said under the fund, every county gets over Ksh200 million ($1.5 million) every year for climate actions.

“The plan by parliament to slash funding for Climate led Actions coupled with reduced funding from global players will adversely impact programmes to combat nature vagaries”, said Odhengo.

On his part, Senator Kajwang’, the chair of Senate caucus on climate actions said parliament passed the Climate Change Act (2016) which introduced the crucial fund

Kajwang, however, regretted that over the past nine years, the Climate Change Council established under the Act has never been reconstituted due to ongoing litigations.

The Senator said that Kenyan parliament has benefited from over Ksh100 million ($772,200) from the global green climate fund for capacity building purposes.

Chair of National Assembly Departmental Committee on Environment, Forestry and Mining Charity Kathure said there’s need to involve more than 150 lawmakers in the caucus projects implementation.

She said climate induced damages have exposed the country to increased damages by floods while prolonged drought seasons saw the pastoralist communities lose countless heads of cattle four years ago.

Senator Joe Nyutu, a member of the committee regretted the slashed budgetary allocation noting that it should be increased to combat effects of global warming and sustain climate change programmes.

• A Tell Media / KNA report / By Erastus Gichohi