United Nations Radio

UNIDO Least Developed Countries Ministerial Conference in Vienna

Leaders from developing countries met in Vienna last week organized by the UN industrial agency, UNIDO, to discuss development and industrialization, and how they could do things differently using clean energy. Louise Potterton sat down with Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, to see how Kenya planned to transition to a green industry.

ODINGA: Geothermal is available in the Rift valley in abundance, Kenya has a potential of up to 7,000 megawatts. Wind, is another resource that is available in Kenya in large quantities. Then there is solar which has also not been exploited in our country. Then we have got bio-fuels which can also be produced in our country in large quantities to power the motor vehicles. So, these are areas where Kenya has got comparative advantage that can be an advantage to the benefit of the country.

POTTERTON: So how does Kenya meet its energy needs, in which fashion?

ODINGA: Currently, 70% of Kenya's energy is coming from hydroelectric power plants which are in the rivers. With the global warming and the erratic rainfalls, the dams dry up and that undermines the generation capacity of the country. That forces us to move what we call the emergency power-using diesel or fuel oil. That is expensive because of the increasing cost of oil, secondly that pollutes the environment. So, we would rather convert to a green energy than go the traditional way.

POTTERTON: Is this possible and is it affordable?

ODINGA: Of course it really depends on the circumstances of a country. But I believe that it is possible to go green. There is one other alternative that I have not mentioned but which we are discussing, this is the nuclear. Kenya would like to exploit that possibility as quickly as possible. And we are talking about capacity development in terms of training our people to start almost immediately.

POTTERTON: Can I just turn briefly to the speech you gave at the opening of the general conference. You said that Africa contributes less than 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions yet it is bearing the greatest burden of global climate change. Can you just explain this?

ODINGA: Most African economies they are not industrialized therefore the emissions are negligible. So, Africa emits less than 3% yet Africa is the victim because the greenhouse gases- as they say- have not passports. As soon as they are released, they travel all around the world and most of the time, they wander to Africa. And therefore Africa is affected by these changing weather patterns that we are experiencing. We have droughts which are now prolonged in many African countries followed by El Nino rains which come along and make a lot of destructions. That is what I meant by that statement.

POTTERTON: What is Kenya currently doing to combat the effects of climate change?

ODINGA: We are trying to move away from rain-fed agriculture to more reliable irrigated agriculture so that we don't depend on rainwater. We can harvest water when it rains during El Nino in the dams and then use that water to irrigate our lands that way we can be assured of regular food production. Secondly, we are also trying to conserve our rainforests and also to expand them. At the moment our forest cover is just 1.7%, we want to increase it to about 10% in the next ten years. We want to increase it to about 10% in the next 10 years. We must then plant a lot of trees. Actually the scientists say we need 7.6 [million] new trees to be planted. Then, we are also moving to a green energy.

POTTERTON: You also referred to a programme called "Lighting Up Kenya" in your speech. Can you tell me about this programme?

ODINGA: This is a programme that is promoted by UNIDO in conjunction with the Kenyan government and it is being implemented in several parts of the country. They are introducing energy efficient bulbs which they call LED and the energy source comes from solar panels which are also assembled locally. So, these solar panels will bring energy into the system and then this system is connected to energy saving bulb that will be used for lighting purposes in the rural areas and in the poor urban areas. This will replace the kerosene lamp which has been the major source for lighting in the households for many years- as you know that kerosene is a polluter of the environment. By introducing this programme and having most of the companies manufactured locally, as much as 1 million jobs are going to be created through this initiative.

PRES: Raila Odinga, Prime Minster of Kenya speaking to Louise Potterton at the UNIDO conference.

Duration: 4'50"