Multi-Level Governance and Coordination under Kenya’s National Climate Change Act

Kenya

 

The Climate Change Act, which was signed into law in May 2016, provides the primary framework for overning climate change across Kenya. The country is one of only a few countries in the world to irectly regulate climate change (Bellali et al., 2018). The main objectives of this law are to promote limate action at the county level and strengthen accountability for climate action.


One of the law’s innovative features is that it allows citizens to hold private and public entities that mpair efforts to reduce the impacts of climate change accountable (Bellali et al., 2018). The act also stablished a multi-level climate governance architecture, which is still under development.


Key activities under the National Climate Change Act (2016) framework so far have included: the stablishment of the Climate Change Directorate (CCD); the National Climate Change Council and the ational Climate Change Fund; the development of the Kenya Climate Change Knowledge Portal KCCKP) and the National Climate Change Registry; and the creation of the Climate Change Resource entre.


In this way, the Climate Change Act has strengthened county resilience, relationships between counties nd the national government, and social cohesion within communities. The establishment and implementation f the act constitutes a good practice because it is built on a solid multi-level governance tructure, enjoys high-level political buy-in, is innovative in nature, and emphasises citizen articipation.