"Zero emissions, zero poverty" has become an ambitious target to fight climate change and reduce poverty at the same time. In Kenya, eradication of extreme poverty through economic growth is one of the aims to be achieved by the Government of Kenya by 2030. Historically, economic growth has been directly linked to increased emissions. Poverty eradication through economic growth is proving to be challenging due to the fact that both developed and developing countries are expected to mitigate climate change through emissions reduction. Despite the challenge, Kenya has prioritised low carbon development as a means to eradicate poverty and mitigate climate change. "Clean coal" is one of the low carbon developments that the country has proposed. This study investigates how "clean coal" can assist Kenya to remain low carbon and develop properly. The analysis of the literature and qualitative data consists of three parts: the first analysis establishes the relationship between emissions and poverty in Kenya. The second part of the analysis assesses the literature on cost, environmental, social and economic consequences of clean coal as a low carbon development. The third component analyses the discourse of the actors involved in the decision-making process to understand the controversy for and against clean coal in Kenya. The study finds that there is possibly a link between poverty and emissions in Kenya and that improved socio-economic development results in increased emissions. The study also suggested that efforts to develop may be hindered by the increasing rate of inequality. The discourse analysis highlighted that Lamu Coal Power Plant may lead to economic development through employment and economic growth.; which comes at a high cost on environmental degradation (increased emissions and pollution) and increased deprivations (negatively impacted livelihood, health deterioration and displacement) that are likely to result in increasing poverty.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uct/oai:localhost:11427/25055 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Momanyi, Joan |
| Contributors | Rennkamp, Britta, Trollip, Hilton |
| Publisher | University of Cape Town, Faculty of Science, African Climate and Development Initiative |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Master Thesis, Masters, MSc |
| Format | application/pdf |
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