Carbon Trading in Kenya: A Critical Review

International Journal of Science,Environment and Technology

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Abstract: In the past few years,there has been a marked increased effort on the part of international organizations promoting carbon credits trading initiatives in countries of the South for global reduction of greenhouse emissions in line with the international Kyoto protocol. With the world opinion increasingly coalescing to the –polluter pays– principle many multinational corporations and countries of the North have,with time,become inclined to participation in carbon credit markets. For market-oriented heavily industrialised regions in the West,carbon trading has been a strategic move that resolves their dilemma of emissions that exceed set world industrial limits,and products and services that have a long carbon footprint. On the other hand,views in the south have been mixed. A significant number of communities in the South have viewed carbon trading projects as a poor solution to the perils of climate change they face. Others have viewed carbon trading as a viable method for earning incom while doing humanity a service. Scholars of local communities and indigenous groups who support the former view have projected that many carbon credit projects in Africa are bound to fail as they are complex to implement and,moreover are also filled with conditionalities. Further,they note that carbon trading facilities established under the aegis of institutions from the North also perpetuate multi-layered hegemonies and environmental injustice as they are controlled by the same people who,by association with the complex institutional structures of the north bear responsiblility for GHC pollution. To what extent do these arguments hold? This scoping study,a critical review of literature on carbon trading projects and related regulatory frameworks in the Kenyan context,seeks answers to these questions.