By Doaa Hussein
For the first time in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) history, the organisation’s meeting of this year was held in an African country. The Kenyan capital, Nairobi, has embraced the 10th ministerial meeting, a week ago, hosting 163 member delegates. This came alongside the WTO celebration of its 20th anniversary, which was established in 1995.
The fact that a poor country is hosting such a great event, which happens every two years, was questioned by some critics, especially that the previous 9 meetings of the WTO were held in richer countries such as Washington, Geneva, and Hong Kong. Some people link this to the global warming crisis, facing the globe nowadays, and the attempts being carried out by the world to lessen its disastrous effects.
Some rich countries are pumping a lot of investments to the renewable energy projects. In this area, Kenya is considered a spearheading, because of its wide share of wind, solar and geothermal energy, as well as, a small scale of Hydro and bio-fuels (investments in Kenya in renewable energy grew from virtually zero in 2009 to $1.3 billion in 2010).
Natural blessings:
Kenya is deemed to be the land of geothermal energy, as it is the first producer worldwide. The African country aims at a production of 10,000 MW (beyond the currently generated 600 MW), costing $ 4 million per MW. Ethiopia seems to be the only rival in that field.
On the other hand, the host country of the WTO this year has a great potential in electricity production through wind. The wind speed has recorded 8-14 metres per second in various areas of the country, which lead the government to grant a great concern to wind projects, such as: The Lake Turkana Wind Project (LTWP) in northeastern Kenya that will produce 300 MW or the fifth of the country’s stalled electricity, by its opening in 2016.
Post climate change conference in Paris:
The Environment Ministry Cabinet Secretary, Prof Judi Wakhungu, has announced, earlier this month, that Kenya has signed 3 deals during the climate change conference that are meant to boost the clean energy investments in the country by $ 10 billion. Last month, the government signed a transaction with the Worldbank that worth $ 200 billion, the deal is intended to improve clean energy levels in the country.
It is noteworthy that the Paris conference has agreed on further investments in the renewable energy, especially through African countries, which has the highest portion in the whole world.
