Ruto’s Call For Scrapping Of COPs Meetings Laudable, Well Understood
The Mt Kenya Times 
President William Ruto has called for scrapping of Conference of Parties (COPs) global climate change meeting
By: Joseph Mutua Ndonga
Worth Noting:
- To the team of Kenyan negotiators opposed to him, many are persuaded to believe one of the main reasons pushing them is fear of losing millions of shillings.
- Most of them were representatives of what would be referred as briefcase Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) which were heavily funded by COPs secretariat.
- So, COP was a cash cow as they ended up pocketing a huge chunk of the funding. They would justify this by stating; we are entitled to hefty salaries, allowances, per diem and out of pocket money.
- For me, I agree with the President. We should give priority to how Kenya and the world at large will benefit in mitigating the effects of climate change. This is as opposed to minting a few new millionaires.
President William Ruto has called for scrapping of Conference of Parties (COPs) global climate change meetings.
Addressing delegates attending the UN-Habitat conference at UN headquarters in Gigiri Nairobi, Dr Ruto left no doubt his decision had been borne out of the frustrations.
As you are aware, I’m leading lights in the global efforts to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change.
So far, we have held many COPs meetings but my concern is that we are yet to make any meaningful progress.
Thousands of delegates were flown to these conferences by the United Nations (UN) and he rightly observed this contributed to the pollution of environment.
The fuel and gas emitted by the aeroplane fall into the category of the fossil oil. The fossil oil is the leading pollutor.
I hope you can see the contradictions. Here we are talking of shifting to clean energy.
But the main reason that seemed to inform the Kenyan president call for scrapping of COPs was; the flowery resolutions passed in these forums were never implemented.
What was the point of us leaving other engagements to attend the conferences that never bore any fruits?
Dr Ruto spoke at the time when the preparations for COP28 were underway.
The event will be held in Germany between 15th November and December this year.
In a reaction, Kenyans, who were members of Africa Group of Negotiators, expressed surprise to what they termed as President Ruto’s drastic change of heart.
This is causing confusion at a time when we are putting our heads together to push the Africa agenda on climate change and prepare our presentation to forthcoming COP28.
However, opinions of Kenyan negotiators were divided.
I’m not here to hold brief for President Ruto but let me explain why I stand with the majority who sided with him.
We know our President very well. He is not a person who would entertain empty talk or these forums turning out to be joy-riding ventures.
He means business when serious matters were being discussed.
The discussions around the matters of climate change cannot be taken for granted.
The impacts pose real threat to humankind globally.
In Kenya, we have not been spared. We are yet to recover from the effects of prolonged drought rated as the worst in 40 years.
Taking cognizant of the fact the global West was a leading player in air pollution; the leaders of these powerful nations were always taken to task during the COPs conferences.
In response, they would make two commitments. One, to implement the resolutions passed to the letter and spirit.
Two, compensate the African nations and other weak countries affected.
Each would commit millions of dollars to ostensibly support these nations.
On papers, these funds would be earmarked for fast tracking the efforts to move to clean energy.
But as it turns out, these nations would not keep their word.
In the next COP, they would make a similar ‘commitment’. This would become a song with no action.
So, President Ruto’s position makes a lot of sense.
It is meant to disrupt the norm and push the powerful nations to get out of comfort zones.
To the team of Kenyan negotiators opposed to him, many are persuaded to believe one of the main reasons pushing them is fear of losing millions of shillings.
Most of them were representatives of what would be referred as briefcase Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) which were heavily funded by COPs secretariat.
So, COP was a cash cow as they ended up pocketing a huge chunk of the funding. They would justify this by stating; we are entitled to hefty salaries, allowances, per diem and out of pocket money.
For me, I agree with the President. We should give priority to how Kenya and the world at large will benefit in mitigating the effects of climate change. This is as opposed to minting a few new millionaires.
Joseph Mutua Ndonga is a writer and political analyst based in Nairobi
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