It is quite a while since climate change became one of the most pressing challenges of the globe. The stakes are high and the challenges of climate change are many these days with its impact worsening from time to time. And no one is immune to these impacts. That is why mitigating climate change calls for multilateral interventions and collective actions. This in fact what was heralded at the 25th UN Climate Change Conference that was held in Madrid, Spain.
The Conference comes at a time when new data shows the climate emergency is getting worse everyday, and is impacting people’s lives everywhere, whether from extreme heat, air pollution, wildfires, intensified flooding or droughts.
Describing climate change as one of the greatest threats facing humanity in their time, delegates of the conference urged the international community to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, conserve forests, monitor water sources and honor pledges made in the Paris Agreement.
The conference was designed to take the next crucial steps in the UN climate change process. Following agreement on the implementation guidelines of the Paris Agreement at COP 24 in Poland last year, a key objective is to
complete several matters concerning the full operationalization of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.
The conference furthermore served to build ambition ahead of 2020, the year in which countries have committed to submit new and updated national climate action plans. Crucial climate action work will be taken forward in areas including finance, the transparency of climate action, forests and agriculture, technology, capacity building, loss and damage, indigenous peoples, cities, oceans, and gender.
The Madrid Climate Change Conference – COP25 – had brought the world together to consider ways to strengthen the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
Though there were high expectations the negotiations at the COP25 UN climate conference in Madrid finally ended on Sunday, wrapping up an event that saw much progress made by the private sector, and by national, regional and local governments. However, there was widespread disappointment that no overall consensus was reached on increased climate ambition.
Ethiopia, as one of the nations that has fall victim to global warming, had been represented by Fekadu Beyene, Commissioner of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. At the COP25 summit, the commissioner and the delegates expressed Ethiopia’s readiness to push for the full implementation of the Paris Agreement, according to Ethiopian Environment, Forest and Climate Change Commission.
Commissioner Fekadu Beyene noted that Ethiopia will continue to call for concerted climate action toward mitigation of climate change.
He added that Ethiopia is eager to settle the unfinished business at COP24, most importantly the rule book for market and non-market mechanism-article 6 of the Paris Agreement.
Ethiopia also believed that developed countries are to leverage the means of implementation through finance, technology development and capacity building to developing countries, he added.
In this regard, his country will actively engage in reports of various constituent bodies and urge them to extend their efforts to reach out and support national actions on the ground, the Commissioner noted.
Ethiopia intends to limit its net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2030 to 145 Mt CO2e or lower.
This would constitute a 255 MtCO2e reduction from the projected ‘business-as-usual’ (BAU) emissions in 2030 or a 64 percent reduction from the BAU scenario in 2030.
Moreover, the country intends to undertake adaptation initiatives to reduce the vulnerability of its population, environment, and economy to the adverse effects of climate change, based on its Climate Resilient Green Economy Strategy (CRGE). CRGE is Ethiopia’s strategy for addressing both climate change adaptation and mitigation objectives.
The Ethiopian Herald December25, 2019
BY MENGISTEAB TESHOME
