Nairobi City County Assembly Members Focus on the Links Between Clean Air and Climate in Two-Day Clean Air Catalyst Workshop
By Ivy Murgor, June 1, 2023
In April, 25 elected members of the Nairobi City County Assembly joined representatives from the Nairobi Air Quality Working Group (N-AIR), Nairobi City County Government and other stakeholders in a two-day workshop focused on better understanding the links between air quality and climate change.
WRI Africa Director of Air Quality George Mwaniki highlighted the unique work the Catalyst is currently undertaking to develop an integrated emissions inventory of greenhouse gas and air pollutants, the first of its kind in Africa. Typically, these types of inventories are conducted independently of each other, but since the survey often involves collecting the same sets of data, can be more efficiently done together. The integrated emissions inventory will also give decision makers a more comprehensive tool to assess the benefits and trade-offs of activities that impact climate change or air pollution, or both. Christine Muthee from WRI gave participants an overview of the monitoring available to inform climate change and air pollution interventions and led a demo of real-time satellite data with the participants.
Air quality information gathered from low-cost sensors.
Selelah Okoth, Head of Air Quality at National Environment Management Authority of Kenya (NEMA), shared the status of the air quality management landscape in Kenya. Okoth additionally shared some of the key milestones NEMA has undertaken in the space, such as a recent framework on vehicular emissions testing and the green fiscal incentive framework and suggested several future interventions. Sammy Simiyu, from Vital Strategies, stressed that air pollution-related illnesses and deaths have affected more than 1 million people in Africa and is among the top 5 risk factors, as more than 28 thousand deaths in 2019 were linked to air pollution, and stressed that the Committee should prioritize clean air action for health by identifying and addressing the leading sources of air pollution.
Top 10 causes of mortality in Nairobi City County
Eng. Michael Muchiri, climate lead at the Ministry of Transport shared with the participants the challenges currently being faced by the transport sector. He stressed that population growth and transport demand have significantly increased in Nairobi, leading to a significant jump in emissions due to the transport sector. Eng. Muchiri recommended actions that could be instrumental in reducing emissions within the City:
Adoption of cleaner technologies in ICE vehicles.
Switching to trains to transport cargo.
Mandatory inspection and certification for PSVs on an annual basis.
The participants also received input from the waste sector through input from Lazaruz Kivai from NCCG’s Green Nairobi, who highlighted that open burning of waste has especially affected the vulnerable and is one of the major sectors contributing to increased emissions in the city. Lastly, Sophie Odupoy from Koko Networks shared some of the successes the organization has had in promoting clean cooking energy throughout Kenya, reaching over 800,000 households in the country.
The workshop closed with a series of recommendations to continue building on the work to improve air quality in Nairobi. The recommendations included subsequent capacity-building workshops to enhance the committee’s understanding of the relationship between gender and air quality, creating legislative frameworks, holding a second awareness workshop with the Nairobi City County Assembly’s Health Committee, making reports and health data available to the committee, and further involving the committee Chair, Silas Matara Ongwae, as a key policy champion for the program.
Watch the Assembly Member and WRI Africa’s George Mwaniki interviewed on Kenya Broadcasting Channel: