KENYA AIRWAYS JOINS UNEP’S CN-NET
The Kenyan national airline, aka as The Pride of Africa, already ‘green’ by global standards with their carbon offset programme at home and by complying with the EU’s directives too, has just gone a significant step further in helping to make the future of air travel more sustainable.
The airline announced yesterday that they were teaming up with the United Nations Environment Programme’s ‘Climate Neutral Network’ or in short CN-Net, which is spearheading the global transformation towards lower carbon emissions and low carbon footprint economies.
This is all the more astounding as Kenya is a developing nation, yet depending hugely on an intact biodiversity and nature for its tourism industry, and is generally thought to have less available resources to put into an unconditional acceptance of medium and long term carbon emission goals.
Kenya Airways is breaking ground again leading the way for many other airlines, in Africa and around the world to follow suit and adding this latest initiative to the option introduced recently for their passengers to make voluntary contributions towards approve ‘green’ projects the airline supports with such funds. Said Dr. Titus Naikuni, Group CEO of Kenya Airways, on the occasion of announcing the airline’s joining with UNEP: ‘Our participation in CN Net confirms our commitment to addressing environmental issues including the challenge of climate change by being able to accurately account for the Green House gases that our operations emit and investing in environmental sustainability strategies to reduce and offset the emissions’.
Eastern Africa is expected to be amongst the hardest hit regions of the world from the fallout of global warming and the resulting climate change, as the fast shrinkage of the ice caps on Mt. Kilimanjaro, Mt. Kenya and across the Rwenzori Mountain range already proves, while still there are ‘scientists’ and in particular politicians out there denying what is there to see for anyone with open eyes.
Rapidly accelerating drought and flooding cycles have in recent years taken hold in parts of Eastern Africa but across the continent too and are threatening the long term survival of agriculture and hence of society at large, and it cannot be stressed enough how Kenya Airways’ ongoing commitment does make a difference and should be emulated by not just other airlines but industry and society.
Watch this space.
