NAIROBI, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Climate change experts from across Africa will meet in Kenya in April for a five-day conference to highlight strategies for accelerating global climate action, a Kenyan official said on Thursday.
Keriako Tobiko, the Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Forestry, said the first African Climate Week will be held in Nairobi on April 9-13.
"The delegates will realign finance flows that are consistent with a pathway towards low emission and climate resilient development for the Paris Agreement," Tobiko told journalists in Nairobi.
He said that the conference will also serve as a knowledge sharing platform for discussing climate action in the continent and focus on supporting the implementation of countries' Nationally Determined Contributions and climate action to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals.
Tobiko also said Kenya is in the process of establishing a climate change fund as a finance mechanism for priority climate change actions and interventions as required by the Climate Change Act 2016.
Tobiko said the formulation of the fund is ongoing in collaboration with the National Treasury following the approval of the National Climate Finance policy by the parliament.
The East African nation is among the first countries in the world to have a climate change Act and framework policy, he said.
According to Tobiko, the framework provides for the mainstreaming of climate change actions into planning, budgeting and implementation at both national and county governments level.
He announced that the ratification of the Kigali amendment to the Montreal Protocol that targets phasing out consumption and production of hydroflourocarbans by Kenya is almost concluded.
The CS said High Global Warming Potential (GWP) substances are expected to be phased down and replaced with low GWP alternatives as stipulated under the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol.
"Currently, most of the refrigeration and air conditioning equipment in the country are generally inefficient as they are mostly based on obsolete technologies. This situation is worsened by the fact that the alternatives that are ozone layer and climate friendly are not readily available in the country, Tobiko said.
Tobiko noted that the country is keen at introducing new environmentally friendly technologies in the refrigeration and air conditioning sector with the aim of eliminating Greenhouse Gas Emissions.
Kenya is a signatory of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that deplete the ozone layer and has contributed to global efforts to mitigate climate change, considering that most of the substances targeted by the Protocol are also potent green house gases.