Climate Change: Who Shoulders the Responsibility For our Environment?

On climate change, Wangari Maathai once said, ‘In a few decades, the relationship between the environment, resources and conflict may seem almost as obvious as the connection we see today between human rights, democracy, and peace.’

This undisputable connection is presently evident and materializes in the relationship between our collective psyche and the present state of our environment.  As a society, the spaces we inhabit are representative of the way we think and the way we live, and consequently, the political, social, and economic decisions that we make as a result.

What is our assumption about who should be burdened with matters of conserving our environment? If we look at the cautious manner in which we keep our ‘sanitized, private spaces’ closed off, or the way in which we are negligent and callous with the more populated, free for all public spaces – we pick up on our instinctive attitude to shirk our responsibilities to institutions, organizations and ‘someone else’ other than ourselves.

Statistics have shown that the global economy could lose 10 percent of its total economic value by 2050 due to climate change. Similarly, the effects of climate change can be expected to shave 11 percent to 14 percent off global economic output by 2050 compared with growth levels without climate change, according to a report from Swiss Re,

Urban institutions and systems, especially in African countries, bear the brunt of these pressures given their increasing populations. We have seen the shocks from the failure of urban systems reverberate throughout the country to affect other regions and markets.

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And while no country or system is immune to these shocks, it is imperative that we all fashion a collaborative problem-solving process which will help us understand our individual roles in climate change action.

Climate Change Duties

Climate change duties refer to the statutory obligations conferred on public and private entities to implement climate change actions consistent with the national goal of low carbon climate-resilient development.

Modern businesses and societies face unforeseen risks as a result of climate-related effects. These include increases and frequency of extreme weather patterns, disruption of water distribution (which is a common occurrence today in Kenya), and increases in temperatures.

Knowing that these are bound to happen again, next year and the year after that, how have we positioned ourselves, our businesses, houses, and the general environment to deal with these events?

Securing our lives and our economies implies the need for systems of governance, ecosystems, and societal standards that have the capability to maintain competent function in the face of climate change.

In other words, we ought to be able to return to a modicum of