The International Conference on Renewable Energy, Climate Change and Ecosystem Restoration (ICRECC-2026)

The international conference on renewable energy, climate change, and restoration of ecosystems, acronymed “ICRECC”, is organised and co-hosted by Moi University and the County Government of Uasin Gishu and will be held from the October 21, 2026 to the October 24, 2026 at The Blueberry Villas in Eldoret City, Kenya. The abbreviation “ICRECC” is derived from the initial letters of each keyword, with the “RE” taking care of ‘renewable energy’ and ‘restorations of ecosystems’. The theme of the conference is “Restoration, circularity and industry 4.0+ technologies for resilient ecosystems”.  ICRECC-2026 is part of a series of conferences aimed at renewable energy, climate change and ecosystem restoration. It builds on the gains realized from strategic partnerships in the preceding ICRECC-2025.   

• Conference dates: 8th -10th September 2026 21^st-24^th October, 2026
• Abstracts submission by dates - 25^th September, 2026
• Early bird registration deadline -18^th September, 2026 25^th September, 2026
• Registration deadline - 2^nd October, 2026

Overview:

Degraded ecosystems and climate change are two of the most persistent global issues affecting mankind.  These issues are interlinked in a manner that climate change is a major driver of ecosystem degradation and ecosystem restoration efforts are potential solutions for mitigating the effects of climate change and vice versa. Joint efforts building on the synergy among   various climate change actors and stakeholders are essential towards finding sustainable solutions. Ecosystem restoration approaches aim to repair degraded ecosystems. Together with renewables and circularity, these approaches create  sustainable and productive ecosystems that benefit nature and lead to resilient communities. 

Stakeholders and climate financiers are encouraged  to invest  in local communities through products and services that foster sustainability and resilience.  There is a need to invest more in clean and renewable energy, and to promote products and services powered by sustainable energy solutions. There is need to integrate renewables into urban systems, emerging technologies and other climate smart solutions.

Circularity’s waste-to-resource model is a crucial approach to sustainability of ecosystems. It promotes a resource loop where wastes such as organic wastes are converted into valuable inputs, like compost, biochar and animal feeds, of economic importance. Such a regenerative resource loop in agriculture constitutes circular bioeconomy and often reduces reliance on industrial fertilizers leading to enhanced biodiversity. Whereas circularity models hold significant promise in restoration programmes, scalable efforts are limited by financial resources and sectoral investments with mainstreaming capabilities.  

Industry 4.0+ technologies’ foundational models on adaptability, agility and predictability are geared to improve ecosystem resilience and sustainability. When integrated into sectoral workflows, these systems improve operational accuracy, provide real-time data and responses to ecosystem catastrophic concerns, system breakdowns and process disruptions. These technologies are based on big data and include artificial intelligence, the internet of things, robotics, blockchain technologies, augmented reality, cloud computing resources and their applications.  In an effort to mitigate the effects of climate change and to achieve sustainable ecosystems, it is inherent upon the various stakeholders to encourage innovations, applications and developments around Industry 4.0+ technologies. More importantly, it is imperative for such stakeholders and sectors to embrace industry 5.0 technologies given their strong emphasis on human-machine collaborations which fosters sustainable innovations and ownership of interventions. 

Sub-themes

Ecosystems are dynamic systems in which the components of nature interact with each other and their environment. The integrity of Ecosystems is largely dependent on natural and mostly external balanced events beyond human control. However, natural occurrences like floods, droughts and other shocks have led to the degradation of ecosystems.

Moreover, uncontrolled and irresponsible human activities exacerbate the deterioration and destruction of ecosystem services. Pollution and waste generation represent some human activities with consequential impacts on ecosystems. One such negative impact is biodiversity loss. Over 90% of global biodiversity loss is linked to material processing and food production.  Circularity encourages regenerative models that reduce raw material demand, keep materials in use, directly alleviating pressure on ecosystems, favor "circular-bioeconomy",  recycling nutrients and water. Further, models that optimize  biomass production are desired.

Besides nature based solutions, renewable energy interventions offer the greatest potential to mitigating the effects of climate change, degradation and destruction of ecosystems. Advances in Science, Technology, Engineering Arts, and Mathematics provide an avenue to develop sustainable support systems that enhance climate change management and restoration of ecosystems. Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) provides smart solutions to climate change. These solutions specifically focus on precision agriculture approaches, effective environmental monitoring, and sustainable land practices. Smart approaches to mitigating climate change include the use of smart drones, powered by  clean energy (solar) and driven by AI. This enables the deployment of pest detection and control systems, early warning systems for hazardous weather conditions, reforestation monitoring systems among others. For instance, The National Government deployed the NEMA COSMS system to facilitate real-time monitoring of industrial air and water pollution.

The cross-cutting  sub-theme includes multifaceted contributions, which may be aligned to more than one of the above subthemes, or which are multidisciplinary in nature. It can also include topics which do not fall into any of the thematics above but are complementary to ecosystem restoration, renewable energy and  climate change.

1. Restoration of ecosystems  

Various  stakeholders are actively pursuing actionable strategies to restore and sustain the degraded ecosystems. In support of these efforts, ICRECC 2026 invites participants to share nature based solutions, innovations, and advances towards the restoration of the various components of the ecosystems. Some of the topics of interest under this sub-theme include:

• Restoration of natural landscapes, such as quarries, water catchment areas 

• Management of hydrological systems, to include riparian lands, water towers/forests, water reservoirs, clean rivers and wetlands

• Urban ecosystem restoration/Architectural landscapes

• Aquaculture and marine ecosystems - 

• Farmland restoration - practices that promote agroforestry, low-carbon agriculture and other practices focused on restoring degraded farmlands. 

• Natural resource management: Seed banks for indigenous trees, livestock and aquatic life.  

• Governance frameworks on restoration of ecosystems 

• Carbon markets

2. Biodiversity and Circularity

This subtheme invites works that address biodiversity loss due to resource extraction and land-use change. Areas of interest include

• terrestrial and  marine biodiversity. 

• wildlife management

• one  health approach to biodiversity

• risks management strategies

• Circularity approaches to biodiversity

• Sustainable bioeconomy

3. Pollution and waste management  

This sub-theme invites contributions focused on diverse topics on incidences, remedial technologies, innovations/waste value chains and circular economic opportunities in the management of the solid wastes/pollutants. The following areas represent some of the topics of interest:

• Waste management including household wastes, dump sites and landfills

• Organic wastes and wastes from pharmaceuticals 

• Plastic waste: recycling and upcycling

• Electronic waste mining/urban mining opportunities

• Heavy metal pollution 

• Air pollution e.g. particulate matter, polyaromatic hydrocarbons/combustion derived pollutants, aerosols/petroleum-based fuels. These pollutants display an effective greenhouse effect than CO2.

• Industrial wastes disposal

• Nanomaterials and other emerging pollutants

• Policy, Legal and Regulatory frameworks 

4. Renewable energy and sustainable energy transitions  

This sub-theme invites contributions with specific topics in energy access and renewables, the future of biofuels, solar, wind and geothermal sources of energy. Topics can also include energy-mix, energy transition, electrification and storage systems. Participants are invited to present their perspectives, original  ideas  and improvements geared towards availability of clean and renewable energy technologies. Papers that discuss policy frameworks for supporting access, affordability and utility of  renewable energy are also invited.

5. Sustainable city technologies

This sub-theme invites contributions that address urban planning, smart parking and sustainable transport, green building technologies, storm water collection, sewer management, urban agricultural practices and policy frameworks supporting sustainable cities. Contributions aligned to sustainable, smart infrastructure and circular systems are invited.  Papers that promote sustainability in urban systems are encouraged. Such systems can include sustainable transport systems, supply and delivery logistics e.g use of drones to deliver drugs.

6. Emerging Technologies:

This sub-theme invites research work and innovations  that address the following;

• Big data and AI Climate solutions

• Green technologies, bio-innovations and sustainable chemistry

• Water saving technologies

• Smart and sustainable agriculture 

• Smart urban systems e.g smart grid for energy distribution 

• Research and innovation in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics

• Ethics, policy and regulatory frameworks in data handling

7. Cross Cutting areas  

7.1 Indigenous knowledge systems; Climate change dynamics plays an important role. Farming practices like livestock rearing, afforestation, intercropping, mixed cropping, terrace farming, water reservoirs, protected spring sources, wetland conservation etc.

7.2 Culture and religion; Practices that are significant to environmental conservation are traditionally passed down generations. Natural systems worth mentioning include cultural shrines. Forests acted as cultural spaces, as source food, costumes, musical instruments (e.g bamboo). Forests were also a natural habitat for traditional/herbal medicines. Coastal communities also relied heavily on marine ecosystems for food, traditional medicine, trade and other forms of livelihood.

7.3 Climate change and health; Contributions that  highlight incidences of, impact and adaptation strategies to climate change induced diseases are encouraged. Research topics focusing on public health also fall under this category.

7.4 Food security and impact on livelihoods; Climate change is a major driver of food insecurity. Floods and storms, droughts, landslides, forest fires are all contributory factors to food insecurity - vis a vis access, availability and stability. These factors lead to an irrational or disproportionate utilization of food impacting negatively on nutrition, health and livelihoods. Participants are invited to share work, knowledge and technologies and innovations towards food security, adaptation and mitigation strategies.

7.5 Climate justice; ICRECC-2026 invites participants to present work touching on climate justice, recognising vulnerability of local communities , indigenous communities and low income nations to the risks of climate change. Presentations can highlight emerging challenges and opportunities in the existing justice frameworks.

7.6 Climate financing; Private, financial and governmental institutions are encouraged to present locally led mechanisms and solutions tailored towards resilient ecosystems. Emphasis will be focussed on  improving local communities’ adaptation to climate change. Presentations can include briefs and working papers highlighting financing models, products and services that foster sustainability and resilience. Contributions can highlight active financial models managed by local authorities.

7.7 Environmental Social Governance; Investors and corporates are encouraged to submit contributions bordering on social frameworks, sustainable  investments and corporate social responsibility.

In light of the thematic areas  above, the partnering institutions acknowledge the various emerging challenges within the local communities in the Great Rift Valley and beyond, arising from climate change, access to renewable energy, and sustainability in the restoration of ecosystems. In order to address these challenges, it requires strategic partnerships among various stakeholders. Accordingly, such strategic partnerships through conferences are key to sharing various climate action plans and are central to sustainable interventions through research, capacity building, and knowledge management amongst practitioners, public benefit organisations, government, policymakers, industry players, research institutions, indigenous people, and other local actors. 

Partners & Sponsors