GBM Blog

Green Belt Movement U.S. Board Chair Mia MacDonald and Wanjira Mathai, Kenyan Board Chair and director of the wPOWER project at the Wangari Maathai Institute, co-author a piece in The Huffington Post about Wangari Maathai's "hummingbird" tale and a call for climate action around the U.N. Climate Summit.

Bringing Optimism to Build Trust and Political Momentum

Kenya played host to the first ever meeting of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA), heralding a new era of “global efforts to address environmental sustainability”.  It kicked off in Nairobi from the 23^rd-27^th of June, 2014 - a lofty affair, attracting environmental ministers from over 180 countries, plus officials from governments and public bodies, economists and others to talk about saving the planet.

Last month saw the second round of United Nations climate talks take place in Bonn, Germany, from 4-15 June, with an outlook to make progress towards a legally-binding 2015 climate change agreement.  

The conference included sessions of the UNFCCC Subsidiary Bodies , which between them look at the “what’s and whys and how’s” of climate change adaptation, mitigation, technology and finance that will eventually form the policies and practices of the climate change treaty.  As well as the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform (ADP); this focuses on enhancing the mitigation pledges and actions of Parties and ensuring agreed and effective implementation by all. It came at the same time of an announcement by US President Barak Obama of a 30% reduction in power plant emissions by 2030 and the completion of the essential elements required for full implementation of the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

22nd, July 2014: The Green Belt Movement (GBM), Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies (WMI),wPOWER Project took a lead in Training of Trainers (TOTs) exposure training aimed at unlocking women potential in Natural Resource Management and Clean Energy Technology. The training of Trainer course on Sustainable Clean Energy Entrepreneurship which is being held in Kenya has representatives from 6 countries including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Nigeria and India. This training was made possible through the wPOWER project with the financial support of the US State Department with parallel support from the MacArthur Foundation.