Climate change and global warming have been pressing issues all over the world. Induced by gas emissions released from industrial countries, they have brought a multi-dimensional impact on people’s livelihoods. According to scientists, since the beginning of the industrial revolution in 1850 in Great Britain, industries have released emission gas as a result of carbon-based energy utilization. The industrial revolution accelerated the advent of science and technology, facilitated modern transportation systems, advanced production and broadened society’s consumption habits with a new way of life. However, it also brought its own demerits by exploiting natural resources excessively and creating scarcity.
In industrial countries, global warming increases energy consumption for refrigerators and ventilators and enhances living costs. Most developing countries, including Ethiopia, rely on rain for agriculture. When extreme weather conditions occur, such as drought or flood, crop failures happen.
As a result, farmers face food shortages and are forced to sustain their living with foreign aid. Water sources are also affected by global warming, leading to the dwindling of water sources, including rivers, streams, ponds, lakes, and seas. Additionally, global warming is aggravating the expansion of desertification. The outbreak of new diseases has also burdened the health sector. Drought poses a reduction in grazing sources, critically harming the livestock sector.
The drying up of water sources and the decline in the volume of rivers reduce the inflow of water into dams, causing irrigation farms to run out of water and be forced to close. The decline in water in hydropower dams also hampers the power generation capacity of the dams. Consequently, the manufacturing sector suffers from a shortage of electric power and is forced to produce below its average capacity, reducing production and supply.
Ethiopia has long been exerting efforts to fight global warming and climate change through adaptation and mitigation programs. Additionally, it has crafted and implemented the building of a Climate Resilient Green Economy since 2005. To adapt to climate change, Ethiopia has been planting trees in selected places, particularly in lands critically affected by global warming and erosion. Many barren lands have been recovering as a result.
Studies have shown that Ethiopia is a country with severe environmental degradation problems, including soil erosion, land degradation, rainfall, and temperature variability. Several direct and indirect drivers of deforestation and forest degradation have been identified, and efforts have been made to reverse the situation.
Through mass tree planting programs, billions of seedlings have been planted in recent years, providing opportunities to mitigate the impacts of climate change, enhance ecosystem services, generate revenue from timber and non-timber products, improve livelihoods, and meet national and global restoration and reforestation commitments.
However, these programs need to be closely monitored, and challenges should be identified to successfully achieve the objectives set by the initiative. In addition to conserving the environment, tree plantation enables the replenishment of underground water, increases the volume of river waters, preserves wildlife, and balances the ecosystem. Afforesting deforested areas also serves for carbon sequestration, which has not only domestic but also global effects.
Garnering foreign currency through carbon trading is also possible by evaluating the sequestered carbon emitted by industrial countries. Industrial countries are the major emitters, but developing countries, including Ethiopia, with insignificant contributions to climate change, suffer greatly from the burden of global warming.
Therefore, tree planting can be seen as a way to sequester carbon emitted elsewhere in developed countries, bringing financial benefits through carbon trading. Recently, farmers in the Wolayta zone of Humbo Woreda generated income by selling carbon to Norway, a global partner. The World Vision, an international non-governmental organization, facilitated the carbon market. Similarly, farmers residing in the Bale zone obtained money from the carbon market, and such practices have continued to date.
As global warming has a global effect, the solution requires the cooperation of countries worldwide. In 1972, scientists from around the world who understood the negative consequences of climate change on Earth gathered in Stockholm, Sweden, to discuss the matter and show concern to find a solution.
After the discussion, it was decided that the United Nations would take responsibility to deal with the matter, and the UN has been playing a crucial role in this regard since then. Under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), climate negotiations have been conducted.
According to experts, developing countries, which are victims of climate change with very little contribution to gas emissions, have suffered critically from the effects of global warming. Sectors such as agriculture, health, and water have felt the brunt of climate change, and countries are not strong enough to withstand the effects due to a lack of financial, technical, and well-trained human resources.
They forward their plea to industrially advanced countries to support them financially and technically. Because the climate impact not only affects developing countries but also has consequences for advanced countries. Additionally, they demand that industrial countries reduce their gas emissions released from their industries. Advanced countries also have their own shortcomings regarding emission reduction.
They argue that if they reduce emissions, the volume of their industrial production will be reduced, leading to negative consequences for the economy. Changing carbon-based energy sources to renewable energy sources is very expensive and beyond their financial capacity at the moment. Therefore, to mitigate the problem, they claim that they need time and sufficient finance. For instance, coal is a major energy source in Europe and the USA, and giving up its utilization and replacing it with renewable energy is currently beyond their capacity.
Another factor that hampers industrial countries from implementing agreements reached in climate negotiations is the developed culture in their countries, manifested by the separation of power among the three branches of government: legislative, judiciary, and executive, indicating the prevalence of checks and balances.
The executive branch of the government has the mandate to conduct climate negotiations with other countries under the UNFCCC, but to implement the negotiation outcomes; the approval of the legislative branch is required, which represents the citizens. If the legislative body rejects the negotiation outcomes, they will not be implemented, and the delegates of the climate negotiation will have to wait until another round of negotiations is conducted.
Such legal hurdles make the challenges of climate change remain unsolved. Another issue to note is that most of the time, developed countries pledge to support developing countries financially to run their adaptation and mitigation programs but fail to live up to their pledges due to various reasons.
Technological support provided to poor countries is not sufficient compared to the challenges brought by climate change.
Compared to other developed countries, the USA and China are the major emitters, but when it comes to emission reduction, they have shown reluctance to heed the pleas of poor countries. They claim that they still need more carbon-based energy to meet their development aspirations.
Alongside the aforementioned efforts, Ethiopia has been doing its homework by enhancing the replacement of carbon-based energy with renewable energy sources, including hydropower, wind farms, geothermal, and solar. In the last three decades since the EPRDF regime took power, many hydropower dams have been constructed and have begun generating power. Dams like Tana Beles, Tekeze, Gilgel Ghibe I, II, and III have contributed to this effort. The completion of Gilgel Gibe IV and the Hidasie dam in the coming years is expected to tremendously enhance the nation’s power generation capacity.
The hydropower generation endeavor not only supplies energy to the domestic power grid but has also become a source of foreign currency earning by exporting electric power to neighboring countries. Wind farms constructed near Adama town and Mekele also contribute to the national grid. The ongoing construction of wind powers near Asala town on Mount Chilalo and Shinele town near Dire Dawa is also expected to enhance the nation’s power gigawatt stored in the grid. Ethiopia, located in the tropical zone where excess solar energy is available, could become a power hub in East Africa if the resource is exploited to its full capacity.
Currently, Ethiopia covers less than half of its electricity demand, and most of the population resides in the mountainous rural parts of the country. The population is mostly settled in a fragmented manner, making it difficult and expensive to supply electric power through stretching electric lines from the grid. Therefore, installing solar panels has been seen as the only option. Many private companies are engaged in distributing solar panels to rural communities, creating job opportunities for vendors.
Schools, health institutions, and others located in rural areas have been able to ease their shortage of modern energy sources due to the expansion of solar panels. Another energy source under exploration is the geothermal project, with the Corbete project run by foreign companies near the town of Batu in the Oromia region. Ethiopia has abundant geothermal energy sources in the Afar depression but lacks sufficient capital and technology to explore and exploit them. When the time comes, it is hoped that this potential will be realized.
Editor’s Note: The views entertained in this article do not necessarily reflect the stance of The Ethiopian Herald
BY ABEBE WOLDEGIORGIS
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD THURSDAY 19 DECEMBER 2024
