BY SOLOMON DIBABA
Ethiopia’s economy is based on agriculture which is climate sensitive and is vulnerable to the slightest fluctuation of climatic conditions. It was therefore natural for Ethiopia to look for a sustained policy and strategy which would rescue the nation from the vicious circle of poverty.
The merit of Ethiopia’s CRGE strategy lies in the fact that it focuses on the use of the abundant natural resource endowments of the country.
Following the conventional development path has only, resulted in a sharp increases in green house gas emissions and unsustainable use of natural resources.
The recurrent change of climate in Ethiopia forced the country revisit some of its most intractable problems so that the challenge faced positions Ethiopia at the forefront of the low carbon revolution promised by the climate agenda.
For Ethiopia the issue of tackling climate change in an integrated manner is not just a programmatic undertaking but a matter of survival for the nation. Prior to 1991, the nation’s forest coverage was estimated only at 4 percent. Over the last two decades however, the country’s forest coverage had grown to about 15 percent.
Apart from forest resources, for instance, the country has 12 river basin systems that it can use to generate carbon free and renewable energy resources. The nation has considerable geothermal (7,000 MW) and wind resources (1,350GW) yet to be exploited.
The solar energy resources of the country (2.199 million TWh/ annum) have so far not been touched. The diversity and the natural basis of the country’s renewable energy resources provides Ethiopia with a comparative advantage of access to cheaper, clean and sustained energy sources.
In 2014, Ethiopia developed a country strategy document for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD +). This was a comprehensive strategy “which will be implemented within Ethiopia’s CRGE Strategy framework that sets out that by 2025, Ethiopia will become a middle-income country, resilient to climate change impacts and with a zero net increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over 2010 levels. REDD+ contributes to the achievement of the CRGE targets through improved management of forests and agricultural areas.”(National REDD+ Strategy, 2014).
With an estimated emissions reduction or carbon removals of 130 million tCO2e annually, 50% of GHG emissions between 2010 and 2030 will happen as a result of implementing REDD+ process.
Embedded within the Green Growth strategy REDD+ is one of the four selected fast-track programs to support ambitions set in the forestry, energy and other land use sectors. Ethiopia considers REDD+ as an opportunity and viable source of sustainable finance for investment in sustainable forest management, forest conservation, and forest restoration to enhance multiple benefits of forests, including but not limited to biodiversity conservation, watershed management, increased resilience to climate change, improved livelihoods and reduced poverty.
The Government of Ethiopia submitted its REDD+ Readiness Preparation Idea Note (RPIN) to the World Bank-FCPF in 2008 which was successively approved in 2009, creating the way for the development of the Readiness Preparation Proposal (R-PP) from 2010 to 2012.
The FCPF Participants Committee decided to allocate grant funding of US $3.4 million in March 2011 through its Resolution PC/8/2011/4, based on Ethiopia’s submission of its R-PP. Ethiopia’s request was approved by the FCPF (Forest Carbon Partnership Facility) Participants Committee in February 2012 as per the Resolution PC/Electronic/2012/.
Consequently the Government of Norway and DFID (UK) through the World Bank Bio Carbon Fund Technical Assistance Fund (BioCF Plus) jointly provided additional finance of US $10 million, which completed the financial requirements for implementing the Readiness phase.
In addition to mitigating climate change, stopping deforestation and forest degradation and supporting sustainable forest management conserves water resources and prevents flooding, reduces run-off, controls soil erosion, reduces river siltation, protects fisheries and investments in hydropower facilities, preserves biodiversity and preserves cultures and traditions.
It has now become obvious that forests are more important if retained, than cut. Out of that understanding has come the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility.
This year, particularly during the rainy season, the nation has planned to plant 4.3 billion seedlings in the areas where campaigns have been conducted in catchment development and soil conservation and in localities specially selected for their vulnerability to soil erosion, landslides and related natural disasters.
Forestry is one of the main pillars of the economy to develop an environmentally sustainable and climate resilient economy through protecting and re-establishing forests for their economic and ecosystem services, including as carbon stocks, which brings the country at middle income status with NetZero emission by 2030. Forestry has an abatement potential of 130MtCO2e and contributing significantly towards achieving a carbon neutral economy.
One important factor is interrelated with what benefits community members can get from the forest development programs. Community ownership of forest areas, ensuring that the rural youth can benefit from such programs, creating continuous awareness creation programs based on practical and closer examples of the adverse nature of climate change, development of permanent forest enclosures is of critical importance.
Given the current pace of developments in accelerating CRGE, Ethiopia will certainly implement the national goal of zero carbon emission by 2030 but more is ahead to be done.
The Ethiopian Herald January 31/2021
