Assessing Health, Social, and Economic Co-benefit of Climate Mitigation Actions in Kenya

Kenya has developed comprehensive climate mitigation strategies across energy, transport, and environmental sectors under its National Climate Change Action Plan 2023-2027. However, it lacks a comprehensive framework to routinely monitor and quantify health co-benefits of current or future mitigation actions to access financing and drive climate action. We aim to generate quantitative evidence of health, social and economic co-benefits of implementing priority mitigation interventions across Kenya's energy, transport, and environmental sectors. Our transdisciplinary consortium combines epidemiologists, modelers and health economists accessing Kenya's national health data systems; climate and air quality experts to monitor and map pollution exposure; and government policy experts from relevant ministries to enhance evidence uptake. Specifically, we will: a) co-design 4-6 priority mitigation interventions and implementation scenarios with government stakeholders aligned with Kenya's climate policies; b) establish comprehensive air quality monitoring across Nairobi Metropolitan Area, c) deploy and locally adapt LOTOS-EUROS chemical transport modeling to simulate pollutant concentrations under current and future mitigation scenarios; d) integrate Kenya's health data systems to develop locally-relevant exposure-response relationships for respiratory diseases and mortality and determine social and health impacts, and e) work with the sector ministries and technical working groups to utilize evidence for improving climate financing and mitigation prioritization.