On behalf of the Cabinet Secretary of the National Treasury on Kenya, Hon. Henry Rotich, Professor Judi Wakhungu, Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Water and Natural Resources formally launched the STEPS Africa Sustainability Hub today in Nairobi.

The speech underscored the importance of Low Carbon Economy Development in Africa. “Low carbon development will play an important role in the realization of sustainable economic growth”.

The Cabinet Secretary noted: “Globally, the business case for green economy development is getting stronger day by day; hence, there is an urgent need for both the private and public sectors to position themselves to tap into the opportunities to be provided by this paradigm shift”.

“A low-carbon economic development path in Africa is able to deliver clean and sustainable energy to millions of energy-poor people across the continent, drive a productive green economic expansion for the continent and deliver a higher sustainable standards of living well into the future”, the speech argued.

“The Low-Carbon Development in Africa workshop comes at an opportune time as it seeks to contribute to the low carbon development agenda”, the CS said.

The CS formally launched the STEPS Africa Sustainability Hub, and pledged support. This is the first hub in sub-Saharan Africa joining five already-existing hubs in the Pathways to Sustainability Global Consortium. The CS noted that the new hub “is a huge contribution that will bring together researchers from across the continent to work on research promoting pro-poor low carbon economic development”.

As former Executive Director of ACTS, the new hub lead, and chair of the STEPS Advisory Committee from the STEPS Centre’s launch in 2006 until she took up her ministerial post in 2013, we were delighted that Professor Wakhungu was able to deliver the speech and join the deliberations.

More about the Low Carbon Development in Africa workshop.