Strengthening Sub / Non-state climate action in the Global South

Event Type
Workshop

Location / Date
Nairobi, 16.10.2018 until 17.10.2018

African Centre for Technology Studies, German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE)

It is now conventional wisdom that many of the fundamental challenges the world faces in the 21st century are inherently “global challenges.” It is similarly commonly agreed that our ability to manage global challenges is woefully inadequate. There is thus an urgent need to explore new strategies to promote effective cooperation. Fortunately, there is hope. While multilateralism is in many ways flagging, we live in a period of extraordinary innovation in global governance. Cities, businesses, civil society groups, and other sub- and non-state actors are increasingly significant actors in world politics. These new actors are forming new types of governance arrangements with each other and with “traditional” actors in world politics--nation states and intergovernmental organizations.

The evolution of the climate regime from a gridlocked “regulatory” regime to a “catalytic” in recent years represents a major breakthrough that puts non-state climate action at the forefront of new approaches to global governance. The entry into force of the Paris Agreement has shifted focus to implementation of national pledges submitted under the Agreement, the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDCs).

Kenya joined the community of nations in tackling climate change by submitting its NDC in 2015 and ratifying the Paris Agreement on Climate Change in 2017.  The country has been a leader in climate action despite being vulnerable and suffering severe impacts of climate change such as recurrent droughts, erratic rainfall patterns, and extreme floods. Kenya was the first country to enact a national climate change legislation in Africa, the Climate Change Act of 2016. A robust array of policies and plans further underpin Kenya’s efforts to address climate change.

Development of Kenya’s NDC involved engagement of non-state actors such as County governments, civil society, companies and marginalised communities, among others, yet their extent, scope and effectiveness in the Global South in general, and Kenya in particular, remain underexplored. It is in this context that this workshop seeks to engage three key questions:

1. What is the extent and scope of non-state climate action in Kenya?
2. How can non-state actors increase their leadership and scale of their initiatives?
3. Is non-state climate action in Kenya effective, and how can the effectiveness be maximized?

Hinweis

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