NAIROBI, April 12 (Xinhua) -- The UN official on Thursday called on African governments to make cooking gas accessible to poor populations to replace biomass use.
Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said the use of dirty fuel has reduced given that many clean energy innovations currently exist in the continent.
"We are racing against time in meeting our goals hence the need to focus on adoption of alternative sources of fuels that could help reduce carbon emissions," she said while opening the 10th Africa Carbon Forum in Nairobi.
Espinosa told African governments to take action on climate change since many sectors such as agriculture, tourism and water that support many populations are in the brink of collapse due to adverse climatic conditions.
She noted that the continent has incredible innovative ideas that include increasing adoption of renewal energy that is today contributing to the reducing the cost of generating energy.
Kenya's Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Forestry Keriako Tobiko said Nairobi remains the second regional leader after South Africa in the number of registered Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects and programs.
"Kenya has 40 projects in the pipeline of which 20 are registered by the UNFCCC CDM Executive Board," he revealed.
Tobiko noted that the projects cover geothermal and wind energy generation, energy efficiency in both thermal and lighting for domestic and industrial use, afforestation and reforestation and industrial technology switch to cleaner technologies.
He added that the voluntary carbon market has also grown over the years and these projects and programs are spread in various parts of the country.
"We took this step because Kenya is a climate-vulnerable country and we are already experiencing adverse sector-wide climate change impacts with significant implications on socio-economic development climate arising from extreme weather events," he said.
