France’s Macron to visit Kenya in March

French President Emmanuel Macron is set to visit Kenya in March 2019 to co-host a global environment event with President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Monica Juma told Capital FM News on Wednesday, the French leader will co-lead discussions on pertinent issues in ongoing efforts to safeguard the environment.

President Macron will be attending the fourth session of the UN Environment Assembly tagged UNEA-4 scheduled to take place from 11 – 15 March, 2019.

“We expect that he (Marcon) and President Kenyatta will co-host the summit on One Planet with the primary outcome of Kenya driving the global environmental agenda,” she indicated.

The CS indicated that Kenya was determined to upscale discussions on sustainable use of natural resources in line with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“We’ve begun to frame Nairobi as the world global environmental capital because we host United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP). It has become as assembly of all UN member States and there are a lot of discussions going on around environmental management in Nairobi,” she said.

Under the theme “Innovative solutions for environmental challenges and sustainable consumption and production,” the forum to be held at UNEP headquarters in Nairobi will explore ways to accelerate sustainable use of natural resources through innovative policies, financing and technological solutions.

Juma said UNEA-4 will also build on global consensus and commitments made at the Sustainable Blue Economy Conference, the world’s inaugural ocean economy conference held in Nairobi last week.

A concept note for UNEA-4 drafted in September identifies the integration on SDGs as set out in a UN General Assembly Resolution 70/1 as a key outcome of the Nairobi meeting.

The resolution titled “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” sets out an ambitious agenda aimed at protecting the planet from degradation and addressing climate change.

“We are determined to protect the planet from degradation, including through sustainable consumption and production, sustainably managing its natural resources and taking urgent action on climate change, so that it can support the needs of the present and future generations,” the resolution adopted in September 2015 states in part.

The 2015 commitment laid a 10-year framework to mitigate depletion of natural resources.

The resolution aims at halving per capita global food waste at retail and consumer level by 2030 and further cut down on losses along production and supply chains.

The resolution also aims at achieving sustainable management of chemicals within an agreed international framework as well as reduces waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling, and reuse.

CS Juma noted that tangible undertakings towards the realization of Agenda 2030 on sustainable development had been made at the blue economy conference which Kenya co-hosted with Canada and Japan.

During the conference held at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre between November 26 and 28, Canada pledged over $20 million in revitalized efforts aimed at addressing the global challenge of Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing.

The pledge included $10 million funding for the development of satellite-based technologies to track down suspected illegal fishing vehicles, Jonathan Wilkinson, the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and Canadian Coast Guard announced on November 28.

Canada also committed $1.6 million to support intelligence sharing with ocean-facing countries in addition to $9.5 million set aside to expand scientific capacity in ocean research.

The funding, he said, will facilitate formulation of policies geared and enhancing efficiency and sustainability in the ocean economy sector.

During the conference, Ireland pledged €32 million in fresh funding for the fight against IUU fishing beginning next year.

The funding, Ireland said, will be used to acquire three Pilatus 12 aircraft to boost ocean patrolling ability.

The commitments by Canada and Ireland were part of over 62 undertakings made during the blue economy conference that saw over 16,380 participants from 183 countries gather at KICC for the inaugural global ocean economy conference.