The signing ceremony follows an official facility agreement in October between Kenya’s National Treasury and the Italian Government.
Kenya is set to benefit from a 5.5 billion Euro (Ksh748.5 billion) funding by the Italian government. This will see the East African nation benefit from the Mattei Plan.
The agreement was signed on Thursday, November 14 between Principal Secretary for Environment and Climate Change Dr. Eng. Festus Ng’eno and the Italian Government’s Director for International Development Cooperation Paolo Lombardo on the sidelines of the ongoing COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The signing ceremony follows an official facility agreement in October between Kenya’s National Treasury and the Italian Government.
Announced towards the end of last year, the Mattei Plan is the new partnership framework for Italy and African countries that will see funds disbursed to projects as grants, credits or guarantees.
Officials from the Ministry of Environment signed the Ksh756 billion Mattei Plan deal with Italian officials at the sidelines of CO29 held in Baku, Azerbaijan on November 14, 2024. /MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT
Furthermore, the Mattei Plan will support the achievement of Kenya’s ambitious climate goals that include the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the building of community resilience to climate change.Â
Kenya is a beneficiary of the initial nine Mattei Plan projects, also implemented in Algeria, DR Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Mozambique and Tunisia.
The Italian Government will draw Ksh408.3 billion (3 billion Euros) of the initial 5.5 billion Euro fund from its National Climate Fund while the rest will be sourced from its development cooperation budget.
Dr Ng’eno was joined at the ceremony held at the Italian Pavillion by the National Treasury’s Public Debt Management Director General Raphael Otieno and NEMA DG Mamo Mamo.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Environment revealed that access to climate finance from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and bilateral and multilateral sources has improved over time due to increased accreditation of national and regional level institutions.Â
However, more capacity is needed for these institutions to improve their fiduciary responsibility over these finance streams. The Ministry viewed the readiness grants extended to local implementing and executing institutions as a good practice that should be enhanced to improve access modalities for the funding streams.
Findings in the UNEP Adaptation Gap Report that 62 per cent of adaptation finance was through loans at market rates is worrying. The ministry noted that adaptation financing should be through grants and other favourable instruments such as concessional loans.
“Kenya supports ongoing discussions under the UNFCCC framework on doubling adaptation finance. The ambition should be to triple the financing so as to meet the growing priorities of developing countries. Adaptation and mitigation finance flows should not place extra burden on developing country parties and this requires reforms in the global financial architecture to make them fit for purpose in responding to climate impacts,” the Ministry revealed in a statement in part.
“Developed countries need to continue to work with developing countries towards ambitious financing to bridge the financing gap, and enhance the predictability and adequacy of financial resources. The USD100 billion per year goal was conceptually mitigation-centric, resulting in a high imbalance between mitigation and adaptation finance.”
The Ministry added that consequently, adaptation finance has over the years lagged behind mitigation finance, therefore, the new goal should ensure a balance between mitigation and adaptation financing.
PS Ng’eno participated in the 6th High-Level Ministerial Dialogue on Climate Finance on the sidelines of the ongoing COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan.
