Speech by UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner at the Launch of Kenya Green University Network

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Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director, gave a speech at the launch if the Kenya Green University Network (KGUN) on 5 February 2016 in Nairobi. The Network is aimed at including environmental and sustainability practices into the curricula, campus designs and research projects of Kenyan universities.

Below you will find Achim Steiner’s full speech:

“Cabinet Secretaries, Excellencies, distinguished guests, colleagues, students,

Let me welcome you all to our United Nations Offices here in Gigiri for the launch of the Kenya Green University Network. UNEP is proud to partner with the National Environment Management Authority and the Commission for University Education on this important initiative.

I'd like to begin with a quote. A famous Kenyan once said, "Education should not take people away from the land, but instill in them even more respect for it, because educated people are in a position to understand what is being lost."

Those words come from Kenya's native daughter and Nobel Prize-winner Wangari Maathai, who founded the Green Belt Movement that has gone on to plant over 51 million trees in Kenya and inspire sustainable development efforts across our planet.

Wangari Maathai's spirit is still strongly felt in Kenya today. Just next to our Gigiri campus, Karura Forest stands as a testament to her will, environmental commitment and ecological leadership.

Her imprint is also felt globally. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals, adopted in September of last year by 193 nations, outline the way forward for a world trying to balance economic growth with social equity and environmental preservation. These Global Goals are truly in the image of Wangari Maathai's lifelong commitment to development that puts people and planet first.

If, as she says, educated people are in a position to understand what we are losing when it comes to the environment, perhaps then Ms. Maathai would appreciate the emphasis placed on education in the SDGs. Education is found throughout the targets, and there is, in fact, an entire SDG devoted to learning. The aim of Goal 4 is to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education, and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

This goal is a recognition that education - especially higher education - is one of the key drivers of sustainable development. Enhancing awareness, knowledge and skills is vital in protecting the environment in the context of sustainable development.

Higher education institutions play critical roles in enhancing this knowledge. It promotes sharing of knowledge, skills and technological innovations, and closes the gap between science and policy. More than this, it educates future leaders who will drive and influence the development agenda for decades to come.

Kenya has recently seen fast progress in higher education. Overall student enrolment rose by 34.9% nationally since 2012, with a large portion of those new students heading to state universities. Kenya's university enrolment is now at some 400,000 students, and has been estimated to climb to 1 million by 2020.

With this influx in students there is more reason, challenge and opportunity to integrate sound environmental practices and knowledge-sharing into the higher education fabric.

The Kenya Green University Network aims to develop these practices and foster climate-resilient development strategies across campuses. The network will cover all aspects of higher education including curricula development, training and campus operations. The universities that make up the network will serve as hubs for innovation and knowledge sharing of best practices in Kenya. With 70 universities here in Kenya, there is great potential to promote sustainability initiatives, which can only be amplified through knowledge-sharing with fellow students and faculty.

Indeed, many Kenyan universities have already recognized sustainability demands and have responded in ways that are worth sharing. They are investing in greener campuses, greener curricula, and ways of engaging staff, students and community.

Universities and colleges typically need large facilities to accommodate their works. The downside to these large learning spaces is the pressure they exert on resources and the environment. From the electricity required to power the facilities to the wastewater generated, there are numerous environmental concerns associated with facility management.

However, we are seeing solutions in Kenya. Strathmore University has installed solar panels with the capacity to produce 0.6 megawatts annually, of which 0.25 megawatts will be sold to Kenya Power at a price of 12 Shillings per kilowatt-hour. This can power about 1,000 households, while the rest is used to light up the institution. Elsewhere, Oshwal College is investing in underground catchment tanks to tap both rainwater and wetland water in order to flush toilets.

Kenyan institutions are also offering environment-focused curricula. 82% of public universities in Kenya offer environment-related courses. At private universities and colleges, the percentage is lower. This is an area that would greatly benefit from knowledge sharing. For example, partnerships like that which Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology has with Looop Inc of Japan in renewable energy device research can help improve environmental education while encouraging external cooperation.

It is this external cooperation that could possibly yield the greatest benefit of university cooperation. As students engage with each other locally and internationally on sustainability challenges, initiatives and solutions are developed that benefit the entire community.

Take Egerton University, which is implementing the Kenyan Government's Vision 2030 flagship project on environment through rehabilitation of the Njoro River. Or Pwani University , which is addressing land tenure and governance, and environmental management - among other things - through internal and external partnerships.

I only wish I had the time to name the many other excellent environment initiatives already underway at universities and colleges in Kenya.

UNEP, for its part, is supporting KGUN as part of our broad initiatives on environmental education. This includes our Global Universities Partnership on Environment and Sustainability, which has close to 800 partner universities around the world, and the Tunza initiative, which is focused on youth.

We are engaging so readily with higher education because we know that learning cannot simply be to acquire knowledge for its own sake. Nor is education about hoarding information. Higher learning is meant for a higher purpose - to share understanding, skills and solutions that benefit the human community and the planet. Experience shows what can be done. We must collectively draw on it to do more.

If you'll allow me, I'd like to call upon Wangari Maathai again to reinforce this point. She said of her efforts with the Green Belt Movement: "I'm very conscious of the fact that you can't do it alone. It's teamwork. When you do it alone you run the risk that when you are no longer there nobody else will do it."

I hope that through this Network, we will see the type of cooperation and sharing that will allow knowledge and expertise to spread in a way that will continue to benefit people and planet - here in Kenya and in the wider world - long into the future.”

Source: http://bit.ly/20Le5Qq