Key Milestones In the Climate Change Bill

Background Information

Climate change first emerged in the political arena with increasing scientific evidence of interference of humans in the global climate system in the mid 1980s. IPCC was established in 1988 by UNEP and World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). Kenya had not developed a common platform to address climate change issues at national level in the 1980s.Two main bodies existed in Kenya time;

• Kenya Climate Forum (KCF) headed by Forest Action Network (FAN) and;
• National Climate Change Consortium of Kenya (NCCCK) and headed by Kenya National Federation of Agricultural Producers (KENFAP).

Development partners and other stakeholders invited NCCCK and KCF to disCuss the possibility of forming one body to oversee the climate change process. KCCWG was then formed. Its formation coincided with a request for support
to Honourable Franklin Bett a private member of the 10th Parliament to come up with a Global Warming Bill.

Phase 1

Each thematic working group  of KCCWG was tasked to design and carry out research based on their thematic areas, with the objective of hiving out climate change impact. These groups later convened to identify the core concerns in terms of climate change impact in their respective thematic areas and delivered their findings to KCCWG  for inclusion  into the draft Climate Change Bill.
Issue based task forces were formed. These included the Climate Change Bill task force and the task force on policy and road to the Conference of Parties (COPs).  The road to COPs was prepared to inform and advise KCCWG on the international climate change negotiation process. The Climate Change Bill task force was set up to co?ordinate the Climate Change Bill formulation process. 
All findings from the thematic groups and task forces were summarized and presented toward the development of a prezero draft. A detailed commentary on the 1st preliminary draft was held and predraft II was produced and circulated to members of KCCWG for their input.

Phase 2

The KCCWG National Steering Committee presented input from predraft II to the drafter for review. This review led to the development of predraft III.
Another KCCWG meeting was convened after which a 4th preliminary draft of the bill was drawn. This draft was presented to members of Parliament, among other key stakeholders including the Ministry of Environment in a consultative workshop for their contribution.
This culminated in the drafting of draft Zero of the Climate Change Bill.

Phase 3

The Zero draft was simplified to make it easily understood at community level. This draft was shared to various groups through informal climate hearings at constituency level. The input from these meetings were shared in a national stakeholders forum. At this forum, a task force from
the stakeholders was formed to ensure that a review of draft Zero was done in accordance with the workshop’s recommendations to form the final draft.

The next step for this process will include regional workshops to share the final draft of the Climate Change Bill and workshops for  members of Parliament to sensitise and lobby their support for the draft legislation. After this, the final draft will be handed over to the office of the Attorney General for review.

The bill will then be presented to Parliament for debate after which the Attorney General will appraise and finalise the bill. The final step will involve the ascent of the bill into an Act of Parliament by the Head of State.