Climate finance tracking and reporting for Kenya’s nationally determined contribution implementation: focus on the energy sector

Abstract

Climate finance plays a critical role in enabling countries to meet their climate commitments under the Paris Agreement. However, developing countries such as Kenya continue to face persistent challenges in tracking, reporting, and aligning financial flows with their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). This study explored the effectiveness of climate finance tracking and reporting mechanisms in Kenya’s energy sector, with a specific focus on how well climate finance flows align with national NDC targets and the institutional factors influencing this process. Specifically, the study sought to: explore the institutional, technical, and coordination factors influencing climate finance tracking and reporting in Kenya, examine the effectiveness of climate finance tracking and reporting mechanisms within the energy sector and assess the extent to which climate finance flows align with Kenya’s energy sector NDC commitments. The study was grounded in Public Goods Theory and Public Choice Theory, which provided a conceptual lens for understanding coordination, accountability, and collective action in climate finance governance. A qualitative research design was adopted, combining primary and secondary data sources. Primary data was collected through key informant interviews to purposively selected stakeholders from the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Forestry, National Treasury, Climate Finance Units, development partners, and climate-focused NGOs. A total of 15 respondents participated in the study. Data was analyzed using thematic content analysis to identify patterns, gaps, and institutional dynamics influencing climate finance tracking and reporting systems in Kenya’s energy sector. The findings reveal that while Kenya has made significant progress in establishing policy and institutional frameworks for climate finance, tracking and reporting mechanisms remain fragmented and partially effective. Alignment with NDCs is evident at the planning and implementation levels but is weakly reflected in financial tracking systems. Key challenges include institutional fragmentation, methodological inconsistencies, limited technical capacity, weak stakeholder coordination, and incomplete capture of private sector climate finance flows. The study concludes that strengthening integrated tracking systems, standardizing methodologies, and enhancing coordination mechanisms are critical for improving transparency, accountability, and effectiveness in climate finance governance.

Keywords: Climate finance, tracking and reporting, Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), energy sector, Kenya, Public Goods and Public Choice Theory, climate governance.