BY GIRMACHEW GASHAW
Billions of people living across India, China, Kosovo, Pakistan, Mexico, Peru, and Saudi Arabia have no choice but to breathe some of the most hazardous air quality on Earth. Yet, as world leaders and delegates gathered in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, for this year’s UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) last month, there was skepticism about whether or not those assembled would address the longer-term effects of climate and the urgent situation in regions where pollution is a daily and deadly fact of life.
While we have only limited data on air quality in many rapidly developing countries, the current data is enough to tell us that air pollution is a leading risk factor for child health and non-communicable disease for millions of people. Historically, annual convening like COP tend to follow their own rinse-repeat pattern of setting future milestones in climate activism without putting mechanisms in place to see them through.
While the world always talks about climate change but does not intervene in tangible tasks, some countries including Ethiopia are transferred to practical responses that could be exemplary to the world at large. These countries know the severe impact of climate change before the world talks about climate change and related issues.
Ethiopia, home to 120 million people, is one of the world’s most drought-prone countries. It has a high degree of vulnerability to hydro-meteorological hazards and natural disasters. Depending on sectors that are climate change sensitive such as rain-fed agriculture, water, tourism, and forestry as well as a high level of poverty are the main factors that exacerbate Ethiopia’s vulnerability.
Ethiopia’s policy response to climate change has progressively evolved since the ratification of the UNFCCC in 1994. Ethiopia launched the National Adaptation Plan of Action in 2007 and the Ethiopian Program of Adaptation on Climate Change and Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions in 2010.
Ethiopia also endorsed a Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) strategy in 2011 with the objective of building a green and resilient economy. Over the years, Ethiopia has been implementing various programs within those policy frameworks. One among them, and by far the most consequential, has been the Green Legacy Initiative (GLI). Rooted in a vision of building a green and climate-resilient Ethiopia, the Green Legacy Initiative was launched in June 2019.
The country of 120 million people set a target of planting 20 billion seedlings within a period of four years and practically showed its commitment in achieving the plan ahead of time. By the fourth year, Ethiopia has succeeded in planting 25 billion seedlings by mobilizing more than 20 million citizens throughout the nation.
The development of more than 120,000 nurseries throughout the country has enabled the creation of more than 767,000 jobs, mostly for women and youth.
The Green Legacy Initiative is a demonstration of Ethiopia’s long-term commitment to a multifaceted response to the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation that encompasses agro forestry, forest sector development, greening and renewal of urban areas, and integrated water and soil resources management.
This has an immense contribution to Ethiopia’s efforts to meet its international commitments such as the Paris Climate Change Agreement, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want.
Ethiopia’s Green Legacy Initiative has multiple targets as it naturally touches on various targets of the 2030 Agenda. Contribution to food security is one of the objectives of the Initiative. In 2022 alone, more than 500 million seedlings with premium values in local and international markets such as avocados, mangoes, apples and papayas were planted.
This directly feeds into the current drive of becoming food self-sufficient by promoting sustainable agriculture as envisaged in Sustainable Development Goal II. The Initiative is a major flagship project that will help attain its adaptation goals as set in the National Adaptation Plan. Ethiopia is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change.Frequent droughts, floods and locust infestations are some of the manifestations of the extreme climate events.
Over the past four decades, the average annual temperature in Ethiopia is estimated to have risen by 0.37 degrees Celsius each decade. Directly linked to Goal 13 of the SDGs, this Initiative complements Ethiopia’s efforts to reduce its vulnerability. Moreover, forest conservation, reforestation, restoration of degraded land and soil as well as the promotion of sustainable management of forests.
Ethiopia’s forest coverage has been declining for decades at an alarming rate. Between 2000 and 2013, the net loss of forest cover was 72,000 hectares a year which is equivalent to 100,840 football fields.
The Initiative intends to reverse this as this is unsustainable in a country where 85 % of the population depends on rain fed agriculture. Overall, the innovative aspect of the Initiative lies in its potential to address multiple objectives. This entails enormous benefits in environmental protection, restoration of overexploited and degraded natural resources such as surface soil and water, halting desertification and many other interrelated objectives. The enormity of the inter-linkages will significantly contribute to Ethiopia’s efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
Considering the potential in the tourism sector, the incumbent government has launched natural development projects in different parts of the nation. Beautifying Sheger is one with a vision of increasing tourism and quality of life, reducing the effects of climate change and to create jobs in the Ethiopian capital city by developing green spaces from Entoto to Akaki waste water treatment plant. The project aims to convince citizens to assist in the cleaning efforts as well, as despite Ethiopia’s recent economic development there has been no environmental action to reduce industrious and urban waste.
Dine for Ethiopia projects will also offer the untapped opportunity for investments in ecotourism, agro-processing, and apparel manufacturing and food industries. Endowed with natural assets, culture, and history, Koysha, Gorgora, and Wenchi projects will also enable decent work, livelihoods, and return on investments for all stakeholders.
The effort that has been made so far has countless benefits in terms of reducing air pollution which will have a severe impact on the health of citizens apart from ensuring economic benefit to the people at large. Considering the effort exerted so far Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed received the Outstanding African Leadership Award presented by the American Academy of Achievement and the Global Hope Coalition in Washington DC for his initiative, called Green Legacy, to reforest the country.
The green initiative effort should continue until many African countries second it and join hands to make the continent a place where every citizens of the world prefers to live.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD 18 DECEMBER 2022
