Role of Environment Impact Assessment, in Climate Change Mitigation in Kilifi County, Kenya
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Date
2025-09
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Kenyatta University
Abstract
Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) is an environment management tool whose main objective is to provide decision makers with adequate information on potential environmental and social impacts posed by development project. In the context of climate change, EIA need to identify and evaluate possible greenhouse gases emission from proposed development projects, and incorporate climate change considerations into the project design to minimize project vulnerability. Global warming and climate change are among the serious environmental impacts caused by development projects facing the world today. According to World Meteorological Organization, the global mean surface temperature rose by 1.20 C in the year 2020, with more than 10C of warming taking place in many parts of Africa. Kenya mean surface temperature increased by 10C since 1961 and Kilifi County experienced the highest annual mean temperature in 2022 at 30.310C. Of concern is the ability of EIA in combating emission of greenhouse gases from development projects, which contributes to global warming and climate change. The main objective of this study was to ascertain the role played by EIA in climate change mitigation in Kilifi County, Kenya. To have a better understanding of the research topic, it was necessary to evaluate climate change variation in Kilifi County over a period of more than 30 years. In this case, temperature and precipitation patterns for Kilifi County were analysed from 1991 to 2022. Moreover, the research aimed at establishing the extent to which development projects in Kilifi County contribute to emission of GHG. This was done through EIA reports desktop review, which looked into the nature of development projects and their associated activities contributing to GHG emission. Additionally, the research aimed at assessing the significance of climate change mitigation application in the EIA reports. The research was a descriptive research and stratified random sampling was applied to sample EIA reports. Purposeful sampling was used to sample rainfall and temperature data. The tools used to collect data included EIA review checklist and meteorological data. Data collected was keyed in excel after which it was coded through SSP and presented in form of graphs, tables and pie charts. The study showed decadal rainfall for Kilifi County on general reducing trend from 1, 6060.5mm (1990-2000) to 1, 1509.2 mm in (2011-2020). Analysis on temperature indicated a slight variation in the recorded temperatures with 2020 recording the highest annual average temperature of 30.40 0C. The research also shows that development projects in Kilifi County were majorly of hosing at 32% and manufacturing at 28% while mining was at 12%. These projects had a significant contribution to GHG emission through their activities which included burning of fossil fuels at 88.9%, energy consumption at 4.3% and deforestation at 3.5%. As to whether EIA significantly addresses climate change mitigation, the research established that only 44.2% of EIA reports included climate change mitigation while addressing the social and environment impacts of the projects. On the same note, only 6% of the EIA reports included climate change mitigation in their environment management plan. Among the recommendations made was to incorporate climate change into EIA process, EIA to encourage the use of renewable energy and climate smart construction in development projects and more emphasis to be put on climate change data and GHG inventory
Description
A Research Project Report Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Environmental Studies (Climate Change and Sustainability) in the School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences of Kenyatta University, September, 2025
Supervisor:
1.James K.A. Koske