Rob Macaire

BLOG ACTION DAY 2009 - CLIMATE CHANGE

Today is Blog Action Day, with bloggers around the world writing about climate change, from thousands of different perspectives.
 
Writing here in Nairobi, it's particularly topical.  Parliamentarians from around Africa have just been meeting here, and have made very clear that they want African voices to be heard more strongly in the debate, as the negotiations intensify in the run-up to the Copenhagen conference in December.   

And tomorrow, together with representatives from the Government of Kenya and UNEP, I will be taking part in an event highlighting a ground-breaking research and communication initiative called 'Africa Talks Climate'.

Run by the British Council and the BBC World Service Trust, this work is founded on the belief that those worst affected must be better informed in order to understand and effectively respond to their changing climate.  Discussions were held with over 1000 citizens from countries across Africa, and interviews carried out with policymakers, religious leaders, business people and the media.

These two events show two different aspects of the climate change debate.  On the one hand, the importance of countries that are vulnerable to climate change having a full say, and being clear about their priorities and needs.  A remark made repeatedly at the MPs' meeting here this week has been that developed countries, who have historically produced most emissions, need to support developing countries, both in coping with and acting on climate change.   That must be right, and the UK believes that a high priority for Copenhagen will be to put in place finance needed by developing countries for both mitigation and adaptation.   And of course developed nations must set ambitious and binding targets for emission reductions.
 
But the the other interesting thing for me is that the Africa Talks Climate project shows that people most affected, here in Kenya, actually need better information about what climate change is and what it means. When this research is published after tomorrow's launch, I will put a link up on this blog.
 

Posted at 15:11 15 October 2009 by Rob Macaire  |  Comments[2]

UK, Kenya and the International Community

A crucial time for Kenya.   The EU, in the company of many other countries issued a statement on Friday expressing concern that nothing has been done to attack impunity for the post-election violence: neither a special tribunal nor referral to the International Criminal Court.  The ICC prosecutor issued an important statement a day earlier, supporting what he called a 'three pronged' approach to those crimes:  ICC, a special tribunal, and the TJRC to tackle historical issues and reconciliation at community level.   Now Kofi Annan , on behalf of the African Union,  has arrived in Kenya for talks with the two Principals and others.  All this coming hard on the heels of some tough, and well-chosen, words from the Obama Administration about the urgency of reforms and the responsibility of politicians and officials to act swiftly on them.   There's a strong sense of unanimity among the international community, and it echoes what is being heard far more loudly from Kenyan voices.   My impression from all this is that  the Kenyan people aren't willing to accept 'business as usual', particularly when that makes the chances of a repeat of last year's violence more likely.   While reconciliation is vital, I can't think of any country in the world where reconciliation has been achieved by deciding to allow people to get away scot-free with the use of violence for political ends on a massive scale.  Meanwhile Agenda 4 remains largely in the realms of commissions and recommendations, with Kenyans waiting  anxiously for the key actions to be taken.
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Posted at 07:08 06 October 2009 by Rob Macaire  |  Comments[2]