Climate change experts have hailed the carbon emission register unveiled on Monday, July 28, 2025, as a tool to integrate Kenya’s efforts to fight pollution. 

In 2020, Kenya submitted its updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), committing to abate carbon emissions by 32 per cent by 2030. 

Documents showed that the total cost of implementing adaptation and mitigation actions was $62 billion (about Ksh8 trillion). 

Kenya committed to mobilising resources to meet 13 per cent of the total cost of the updated NDC, with the remaining 87 per cent requiring international support. 

“Specific to mitigation, Kenya intends to bear 21 per cent of the mitigation cost from domestic sources, while 79 per cent is subject to international support in the form of finance, technology development and transfer, and capacity building,” the United Nations Reduce Emission from Deforestation and Degradation (UN-REDD) Programme 2025 Integrated Work Plan says. 

The agency stated that Kenya’s contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions is insignificant, estimated at less than 0.1 per cent, but the country has exhibited a strong commitment to contributing to global action to combat climate change. 

However, Kenya’s economy, the Work Plan explains, is vulnerable and experiencing the adverse impacts of climate change. 

The Ministry of Environment launched the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) registry and nesting guidelines, placing the country ahead of its African peers with the emission tracking tool. 

According to Psamson Nzioki, Programme Manager at Jurisdictional and Nested REDD+, the registry will harmonise Kenya’s internal accounting for the reduction of carbon emissions. 

“It will give us an overview of what exactly is happening in the country in terms of reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. The country will now have a record of how it is contributing to the broader climate change goals set out in the NDC under the UNFCCC,” Nzioki said. 

He asserted that the establishment of the registry is in the Climate Change Act, and it is meant to enhance the transparency and accountability of emission reductions within the sector.  

Nzioki said that the registry will help to weed out rogue carbon credit traders, popularly known as ‘carbon cowboys from the sector, since it will be a requirement for any organisation to register and have its operations approved by the National Environment Management Authority. 

“Organisations in the carbon market will no longer operate in opaqueness. Even if they secretly generate emission reduction credits, buyers out there will still see it because the registry is public,”  says Nzioki.