Policy Advice and Support
Our influence over legislation and policies continues to be felt. Between 2015 and 2021, the ECAS working with several like-minded partners and actors were centrally involved in the development of Kenya’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC), Kenya National Adaptation Plan 2015-2030, The Climate Change Act, 2016; the Green Economy Strategy and Implementation Plan (GESIP, 2016); The Energy Bill, 2017; National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP, 2018-2021), the Public Finance Management (Climate Change Fund) Regulations, 2018 among others.
We aim at securing active participation of local, regional, national governments and all major groups: women, children and youth, indigenous peoples, non-governmental organizations, local authorities, workers and trade unions, business and industry, the scientific and technological community, and farmers, as well as other stakeholders, including local communities, volunteer groups, and foundations, migrants and families as well as older persons and persons with disabilities. In this regard, seek to work more closely with the major groups and other stakeholders and encourage their active participation, as appropriate, in processes that contribute to decision-making, planning, and implementation of policies and programs for sustainable development at all levels.
The ECAS Institute continues to be a reputable source of environmental knowledge. Our experts are increasingly being called upon to further discuss the subject in media especially print, social and mass media. The press regularly uses publications and contents of presentations at the popular dialogues for environmental analysis. Our activities and products are useful reference guides on policy questions in Kenya. We have been using our networks and platforms to inform the public and policymakers of alternative strategies and are increasingly utilized for planning purposes by leading companies, organizations, Strategic institutions, and media. Feedback left on the Website and social media platforms inform us that those who have been in contact with our work find it invaluable and useful for proactive engagement on environmental matters.
Our Focus Has been on:
A. Environment and Climate Change Law and Policy Support
We engage in the policy chain: From Policy and Law Development to Implementation. Our work supports efforts toward ambitious, environmentally responsible, and sustainable climate and energy policies. We aim for continued support to the development and improvement of effective governance and rule of law by focusing on harnessing partnerships and facilitating effective governance practices on a shared long-term interest in building rule of law in local and regional settings.
Our climate and innovation program offers an innovative climate and an atmosphere that fosters and propagates creative mechanisms to achieve climate change goals. Our innovation environment is positively associated with knowledge development, resource exchange, value creation, and product and service innovation. This program is aimed at:
Our focus will be on the following initiatives:
- Capacity Building and Regional Environmental Training programs
- Climate Change law policy advocacy and capacity building
- Community Environmental Health, Justice and Peacebuilding
- Constitution, Legislation, and Public Participation
- Environmental Migration, Peacebuilding and Humanitarian emergencies
- Environmental, Energy and Climate Change governance
- Environmental Law and Policy Reviews
B. Protecting Natural Resources
We will continue to work on the governance dimensions of climate change, with a special focus on:
- Strengthening the nexus between environment, climate change and energy interface.
- Integration of climate change adaptation, resilience and water resources considerations into decision making
- Law development and enforcement in the region
- Climate literacy, education and training
- Building effective, transferable ocean protection laws and governance approaches by supporting marine resource planning, management, permitting and regulation;
Our initiatives have always included:
- Climate Change
- Energy
- Water and Oceans
- Invasive Species
- Biodiversity Conservation
C. Waste and Circular Economy
Our work on resource use efficiency and waste recycling has contributed to the analysis and development of better policy and legislation well as strategies at the county and national levels. ECAS Institute has always put a strong emphasis on law and governance and means of advancing sustainable development goals. We have also focused on technology and green finance as enablers and drivers of environmental compliance performance.
D. Preventing Degradation and Pollution of Air, Water and Land Resources
Our initiatives in this regard have always been:
- Waste and Circular Economy
- Resilient and Sustainable livelihoods
- Green technologies for sustainable development
- Nature-based and ecosystem services
- Sustainable land use and restoration
- Technology, innovation and climate-smart program
- Sustainable Energy and Clean Cooking Solutions
E. Water, Marine and Fisheries
We work in water, marine and fisheries policy and law development and implementation towards environmental benefits.
Besides the visible effects on people’s livelihoods, global warming is predicted to have a strong and adverse impact on human health. Climate change is responsible for at least 150,000 deaths per year, a number that is expected to double by 2030.
Although global warming may bring some localized benefits, such as fewer winter deaths in temperate climates and increased food production in certain areas, the overall health effects of a changing climate are overwhelmingly negative. Climate change affects many of the social and environmental determinants of health – clean air, safe drinking water, sufficient food, and secure shelter.
Climate change exacerbates the risks that the current climate, including variability, poses for sanitation, creates new risks, heightens uncertainties, and can increase inequality in sanitation access. These three dimensions are informed by three key perspectives in the climate change literature, namely risk-hazard, resilience, and vulnerability.
Further, the potential consequences of climate change for the sustainability of water and sanitation services intersect with other causes of failures such as mechanical failure, poor sitting or construction, and underlying institutional, financial and social factors. The implications for sanitation policy and programming responses of increased risks, uncertainties, and potential inequalities are outlined below, followed by a discussion of the climate variability and change risks for sanitation.
Water scarcity through climate change and the resulting increase in the costs of water can lead to inequitable access. This may deprive households of opportunities to collect the amount of safe water needed for proper handwashing and hygiene, limiting children’s ability to grow up healthy and strong.
F. Agriculture and Land Management
We work to advance environmentally sustainable and climate smart land and natural resources management.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development puts a strong emphasis on the integrated land management approach to achieving SDGs that can harness synergies and minimize potential trade-offs. Land can play an important part in accelerating the achievement of many SDGs. Maintaining and restoring land resources can play a vital role in tackling climate change, securing biodiversity, and maintaining crucial ecosystem services while ensuring shared prosperity and well-being. Healthy and productive land can play an unparalleled role as an engine of economic growth and a source of livelihood for billions worldwide, including the most vulnerable populations. Achieving land degradation neutrality (LDN) can become an accelerator of achieving SDGs across the board.
Land, including its water bodies, provides the basis for human livelihoods and well-being through primary productivity, the supply of food, freshwater, and multiple other ecosystem services. Warming over land has occurred at a faster rate than the global mean and this has had observable impacts on the land system. Urgent action to stop and reverse the over-exploitation of land resources would buffer the negative impacts of multiple pressures, including climate change, on ecosystems and society.
Nonetheless, there are many land-related climate change mitigation options that do not increase the competition for land (high confidence). Many of these options have co-benefits for climate change adaptation. Rapid reductions in anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that restrict warming to “well below” 2°C would greatly reduce the negative impacts of climate change on land ecosystems. In the absence of rapid emissions reductions, reliance on large-scale, land-based, climate change mitigation is projected to increase, which would aggravate existing pressures on land. Sustainable food supply and food consumption, based on nutritionally balanced and diverse diets, would enhance food security under climate and socio-economic changes. Cross-scale, cross-sectoral, gender, and inclusive governance can enable a coordinated policy that supports effective adaptation and mitigation
G. Biodiversity, Ecosystems and Nature Based Solutions
We promote and contribute to policy and legislative development in the region to enhance biodiversity and associated ecosystem services. Changes in biodiversity and ecosystem services due to climate change are not all negative, with some species either thriving or adapting. Most of these observed changes are modest, which is possibly due to the limited change in climate that has occurred. However, future projected changes in climate are much larger.
Climate change and biodiversity loss are twin crises that should be tackled together. Conserving, managing, and restoring ecosystems is key to success. In addition to the direct impacts on the economy, societies, and people’s health, rapidly advancing climate change negatively impacts many of the world’s species and ecosystems, driving biodiversity loss. At the same time, protecting and restoring biodiversity is crucial to addressing climate change.
Working with nature to conserve, manage and restore ecosystems – known as nature-based solutions – is one of the most cost-effective approaches to both mitigating and adapting to climate change.
Recent research found that restoring 30% of lands that have been converted for farming in priority areas, alongside retaining natural ecosystems, would prevent over 70% of projected extinctions of mammals, birds, and amphibians whilst also putting us on track to sequester almost half of all the CO2 increase in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution.
Nature-based solutions such as restoration are particularly effective because, unlike infrastructure-based interventions, actions that boost biodiversity can help to tackle climate change in two ways at once: through mitigation and adaptation. As well as sequestering and storing carbon, ecosystems can help communities adapt to the negative impacts of climate change, as well as provide multiple other benefits.
H. Green Economy
We work to make the environment an integral part of economic, investment and political decisions. The transition to a resilient, low-carbon economy is underway and stakeholders are increasingly taking action to drive this shift. However, the pace of change is still too slow and too limited to achieve the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change or to realize the economic and social benefits that climate action can bring. One of the ways to accelerate climate action – and optimize its benefits – is to ensure that it is inclusive. This means taking account of the distributional consequences so that no one is left behind. The benefits of the transition will far outweigh the costs. Managed well, the transition will both prevent the immense human and economic costs of climate disruption and also improve growth, generate net new jobs and reduce inequality. The transition is essential to maintaining decent work and thriving communities in the coming decades.
The just transition builds on well-established global frameworks in terms of climate change, human rights, labor standards, and inclusive growth. It focuses attention on the need to anticipate the social implications of the shift to a low-carbon economy and the increasing physical impacts of climate change.
We work to deliver effective regulatory and poly regimes and structures that help reduce the adverse impacts of industrialization and manufacturing on the environment.