It is highly thought that not only must countries fight the causes of climate change but they should also adapt to the consequences that are often most dramatic for the people residing in developing countries like Africa and its subset Ethiopia, to be specific, indeed! Our time is highly compromised by climate change, which is one of the most captious continental and global challenges. With a best hope to face the bad effects of climate change on world security and to drive the world on a low-carbon pathway, a multinational effort of the world leaders is on the process to hammer out a new global pact for reducing the emissions. Ethiopia’s approach to environmental diplomacy in this regard is really an encouraging one.
Ethiopia has been working hard to intensify green economy and environmental diplomacy through drawing importance lessons from countries which have been recording remarkable achievements in that regard. Climate diplomacy calls for preparing appropriate risk assessment and risk management strategies at a global strategic level. Climate diplomacy also means prioritizing climate action with partners worldwide – in diplomatic dialogues, public diplomacy and external policy instruments.
It is well recognized that Ethiopia has implemented an exemplary tree-planting campaign by planting over 20 billion seedlings over the past years. Through the Green Legacy Diplomacy initiative, Ethiopia has had excellent results in building regional and cross-border peace, development, problem-solving, and strategic partnerships.
Recognizing the fact that effective climate diplomacy which must be firmly rooted within the national interest as per the national policies and drivers, the country has been highly focusing on intensifying climate and environmental diplomacy.
Interestingly, in Ethiopia, there is now considerable understanding about climate change diplomacy among higher decision makers, as well as at the mid-level experts’ level.
The main reason for having mass mobilization against impacts of climate change has been to provide awareness to the nation in general and vulnerable communities in particular. These green initiatives are also a means to make the regional, continental and even the global community aware about the impact of climate change on communities in order to come up with a binding agreement to address it.
For instance, Ethiopia’s first national climate change conference took place on January 15, 2009, and was attended by high level government officials, CSOs, UN, bilateral and multilateral organizations, as well as the private sector.
Needless to state, this great East African nation is a seat for the African Union and the location for a large number of diplomatic corps and consular representatives. National, regional and international conferences, meetings and panel discussions are regularly being held in Addis Ababa. For instance, the first climate change conference, which was held in Addis Ababa in 2009, engaged most of the diplomats and contributed a lot towards the idea of creating the political wing of African negotiators.
Knowledge generation, sharing and networking that consist of research, knowledge management and peer learning, and outreach activities are significantly useful in bolstering capacity mobilization, capacity building and technical assistance, which have been well focused on as they help bring about change.
True, the country has to entertain a new kind of climate politics as national actions prove national and sub national actors ranging from provinces and cities, to civil sector organizations and private companies including major forerunners with viable approach towards success.
Yes, Ethiopia engages in several international forums and negotiations on a wide range of environmental issues, including climate change, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable development. For instance, the recently paid visit to Singapore, a city state, has helped the nation draw important lessons regarding green growth and environmental protection. Unequivocally, the changes in green economy diplomatic actions would yield higher benefits for Ethiopia as well as for other east African and the entire African nations.
Specifically, Ethiopia’s stance on international environmental issues should be beneficial to its domestic politics and economics, while improving the local environment. Diplomacy is the continuation of internal affairs, and therefore foreign affairs should serve internal interests.
True, Ethiopia’s environmental policies should not be determined by other nation’s demands, and climate diplomacy refers to the use of diplomatic channels and strategies to address global climate change and its impact on international relations. It involves negotiating and implementing climate-related policies, treaties, and agreements at the international level, as well as cooperation between countries and other stakeholders to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to the impacts of climate change, and promote sustainable development.
Basically, climate diplomacy aims at committing to multilateral style in climate policy, addressing implications of climate change on peace and security, accelerating domestic action and raising global ambition and enhancing international climate cooperation through advocacy and outreach.
In recent years, there has been increasing interest in how to integrate climate change into foreign policy, known as ‘climate diplomacy’. Climate diplomacy encompasses the actions of diplomats, negotiators and policy makers representing national climate change interests in international forums.
An emphasis on climate diplomacy could potentially be a significant vehicle for developing countries like Ethiopia to influence international climate change negotiations. Intensifying climate diplomacy has, of course, uses, to increase understanding of how to integrate climate change into foreign policy, begin to build the knowledge and capacity of Ethiopia’s negotiators and diplomats in climate diplomacy and how climate diplomacy can be fostered and enhanced at the national level, in the negotiations and through other forums and make further support decision-makers in designing and delivering climate compatible development through effective foreign policy design and implementation.
Since coordinating actions along these tracks is a necessary step, Ethiopia’s climate diplomacy has entertained many parallel tracks that will therefore be a necessary to facilitate climate transition to achieve half of its electricity requirements from renewable energy.
These parallel climate diplomacy dimensions include multilateral adaptation by working within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, multilateral innovation by tailoring climate and geopolitical competition, trilateral bridging by positioning Ethiopia as a bilateral expansion by connecting climate to economic cooperation through new green partnerships.
Ethiopia has been advancing towards being one of the global active drivers of climate resilience via well intensifying green ecology and sustainable biodiversity preservation towards keeping the balance of nature. Through the climate resilience agenda, Ethiopia aims to forge a new climate identity, positioning itself as a hub for the co-development of green technologies. This strategy is intended to attract and deploy finance, thereby accelerating continental as well as global climate action.
The country’s core objective through this move is two-fold: to boost climate partnerships as they are expected to coordinate transition plans between developing countries and other developed ones and increase political and diplomatic support to enhance Ethiopia’s legitimacy and leverage at regional, continental and/or global climate negotiations. Ethiopia at the centre could thus attract technology transfer, taking its green legacy initiative capacity as a springboard for international climate effort though a lot remains to be done.
If Ethiopia is smart enough and systematically use what it has at hand, the bilateral or multi-lateral frameworks help it strategically link climate transition targeting other issues, including cooperation to generate investments for the energy, technology, infrastructure, and transportation sectors. Given its low-carbon energy through technologies and limited public and private investments, Ethiopia needs to be a key player in climate change fight.
Country’s climate diplomacy must also engage the private-sector and industry-led climate finance networks. Such a positive move comports with Ethiopia’s traditional stance that countries historically responsible for the majority of the emissions should support the low-carbon transitions of emerging countries.
Yes, with rapid advancement in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and smart agriculture initiatives, Ethiopia has to work hard to pro-actively address climate change. These policies, and technologies, among others could serve as models for other developing nations to emulate. Ethiopia’s strategic engagements abroad will be hard to achieve without reforming domestic capacity. It is necessary to have designated officials with the mandate and expertise on global climate issues who can draft, manage, and coordinate its climate policies.
No question about it, countries need to cut man-made greenhouse gas emissions drastically, phase out fossil fuels and move to renewable energy. They need to be more efficient and use less energy, and need to tackle deforestation. Besides, being involved in a community initiative seeking a role in a private sector or government organization focused on sustainability, or enrolling in an educational pursuit will lead to a fulfilling role.
Restoring and protecting nature may provide nations like ours with highly protected ecosystems that can also benefit biodiversity, providing a win-win fashion for nature.
Across the globe, communities are already recognizing that adaptation must also be part of the response to climate change. From flood-prone coastal towns like Dire Dawa to regions Oromia and Somalia facing increased droughts, a new wave of initiatives focuses on boosting resilience. Those include managing or preventing land erosion, building micro-grids and other energy systems built to withstand disruptions, and designing buildings with rising flood catastrophe in mind.
Climate change is happening now, and it’s the most serious threat to life on our planet, no doubt. Luckily, there are plenty of solutions to climate change and they are well-understood. Core to all climate change solutions is reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which must get to zero as soon as possible. Because both forests and oceans play vitally important roles in regulating our climate, increasing the natural ability of forests and oceans to absorb carbon dioxide can also help stop global warming.
In a nutshell, the main ways, among others, to stop climate change are to pressure government and business to keep fossil fuels in the ground, invest in renewable energy, switch to sustainable transport, restore nature to absorb more carbon, protect forests like the Amazon. It is quite important to say something about the latter. Yes, forests are crucial in the fight against climate change, and protecting them is an important climate solution. Cutting down forests on an industrial scale destroys giant trees which could be sucking up huge amounts of carbon. It is with this colossal understanding that Ethiopia is well embarking on planting tree seedlings and nurturing them accordingly year by year.
Editor’s Note: The views entertained in this article do not necessarily reflect the stance of The Ethiopian Herald
BY MENGESHA AMARE
The Ethiopian Herald June 13/2024
