BY ZEKARIAS WOLDEMARIAM
In recent years more and more reasons are coming to the arena causing a lot of suffering to Mother Earth. Among other things, the factors causing the earth’s suffering are plastic, extreme heat, wildfires and floods, according to the UN.
In his message regarding this year’s Earth Day, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said “Climate disruption is approaching a point of no return. We must act decisively to protect our planet from both the coronavirus and the existential threat of climate disruption. The current crisis is an unprecedented wake-up call.”
Guterres further underlined the need to focus on exploiting opportunities to transform the climate change threats into benefits. “We need to turn the recovery into a real opportunity to do things right for the future”
Accordingly, he proposed six climate-related actions to shape the recovery and the work ahead. His proposals in general focus on delivering new jobs and businesses through a clean, green transition, the need to achieving green jobs and sustainable growth, shifting from the grey to green economy, among others.
The looming climate change crisis has called for a united action of developing countries, the developed countries who are the biggest contributors to the greenhouse gas emission, as well as international organizations, among others.
In this regard, Ethiopia as a developing country has been working strenuously to intensify its contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emission in various ways. For example, the country is well known for its development of hydropower electric dams that can generate thousands of megawatts of electricity. By developing electricity the country can prevent millions of people from burning fuelwood, kerosene, cow dung and fossil fuel to cook food and to light up their houses.
Furthermore, many industries, hotels and other businesses and services can use clean and green energy and refrain from the use of climate polluting energy sources. Apart from this, the country can contribute to the global efforts of reducing climate change through exporting electric power to neighbouring countries that are also users of pollutant sources of energy.
Besides, the government is also keenly implementing a large scale greening project which is of a multifaceted objective in addressing climate issues. The green legacy initiative aims to plant billions of trees in all corners of the country in five years. The trees include indigenous and exotic types as well as varieties that can be used for food and other commercial purposes.
The campaign is promoted by the Ethiopian Prime Minister to reach national green environmental goals and face the effects of deforestation and climate change in the country. The ambitious goal of the Initiative for 2019 is to plant a total of four billion indigenous trees by the end of the rainy season in October.
In this framework the Green Legacy campaign was launched to help achieve this goal, proposing to the whole country to participate by planting 200 million tree seedlings in 1000 sites across Ethiopia in one day on Monday, July 29, 2019. This goal has been largely overcome, reaching the result of 353,633,660 tree seedlings planted and establishing a new world record.
Such efforts by developing countries are likely to encourage the shifting of farmers and businesses towards clean and green energy use as well as increased engagement in greenhouse emission-reducing sectors.
The success of their efforts should be assisted by collateral work by the developed countries. As developing countries intensify greening campaigns, the developed countries should assist by providing the committed amount of funding.
Accordingly, the United States has pledged to announce the funding it will provide for developing countries towards assisting climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts.
In addition to the commitment to release funding the United States and China, the world’s two biggest carbon polluters agreed to cooperate to curb climate change with urgency, just days before President Joe Biden hosts a virtual summit of world leaders to discuss the issue.
According to npr.org, the agreement was reached by U.S. special envoy for climate John Kerry and his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua during two days of talks in Shanghai last week, according to a joint statement.
The two countries “are committed to cooperating and with other countries to tackle the climate crisis, which must be addressed with the seriousness and urgency that it demands,” the statement said.
China is the world’s biggest carbon emitter, followed by the United States. The two countries pump out nearly half of the fossil fuel fumes that are warming the planet’s atmosphere. Their cooperation is key to the success of global efforts to curb climate change, but frayed ties over human rights, trade and China’s territorial claims to Taiwan and the South China Sea have been threatening to undermine such efforts.
The Ethiopian Herald 23 April 2021
