UK has unique chance to save Kenyan tea farmers

Under British colonial rule, many Kenyans were evicted from their lands to make room for tea plantations, many of which are still owned by multinational corporations. The tea bond between Kenya and the United Kingdom continues today.

Kenya is the world’s largest exporter of black tea and the UK and Ireland are the largest drinkers of it, per capita. More than half the tea drunk in the UK is grown in Kenya.  However, this relationship, and the fate of one of Kenya’s major industries, is under threat due to the climate crisis.

Kenyan tea is the best. For many years, we’ve had the perfect growing conditions for it: Tropical, red volcanic soils and long, sunny days in the mountainous regions, above 2,000 metres altitude, at temperatures of 16-29 degrees Celsius and stable rainfall.

But a new Christian Aid report shows that climate change is forecast to see 26 per cent of Kenya’s optimal tea growing areas lost by 2050. In the 30-year span, our medium tea growing regions are to be slashed by 39 per cent due to rising temperatures, erratic rainfall and increased droughts. With the industry employing three million people, this poses a devastating threat to our economy.

The situation is so perilous that even some of the world’s biggest tea makers, Unilever and Tata, have raised the climate alarm as regards our tea farmers.

Helped to create crisis

The tragedy is that Kenyans have not caused this crisis. Climate change is yet another relationship which binds us to the UK. As the first country to industrialise and a major historic emitter of carbon dioxide, the UK has helped to create the crisis.

This year, the UK has a unique opportunity to address this great injustice. As host of the G7 and the COP26 UN climate summit, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson can help to bring down emissions and raise financial support for the climate-vulnerable.

First up, in June, these seven global economic titans must mobilise climate finance — the $100 billion a year they had promised by 2020 — to help the poor countries. Many such countries, including Kenya, have vast amounts of solar and wind but need the investment and technology to harness it.

Cancelling the burdensome debts of the poorest countries would go a long way to providing the fiscal capacity for them to build back better after Covid-19 and address other challenges. A new deal for climate finance beyond 2021 is urgently needed.

In November, the UK must emerge from the Glasgow climate talks with nations coming forward with concrete national plans to urgently cut their emissions. The world remains on course for a disastrous future of 3 degrees Celsius of global warming, double the 1.5C target agreed in Paris.

If Mr Johnson can do that, he’ll have added a new chapter to the relationship between the UK and Kenya. And both Kenyan tea growers, and Britain’s tea drinkers, will have something to thank him for.

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