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Act Now; Act Together; Act Differently!The why? And how?

Cascading the Mottos Of “Acting…” to National Level For the Case of Ethiopia

Final Project Submission for the course :Turn Down the Heat: Why a 4oc Warmer World Must be Avoided

by Daniel GebeyehuMay 20, 2015

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Background on the Country• Economically, Ethiopia is one of the world’s fastest-growing

countries. • It intends to reach middle-income status before 2025. • It aims to do so by building a green economy.• Following the conventional development path would result in

a sharp increase in Green House Gas (GHG) emissions and unsustainable use of natural resources.

• To avoid such negative effects, the government has developed a strategy to build a green economy.

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Background Cont..• Ethiopia is experiencing the effects of climate change. • Climate change presents the necessity to switch to a

new, sustainable development model. • The Government of Ethiopia initiated the Climate-

Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) initiative in 2011:• To protect the country from the adverse effects of

climate change• To build a green economy that reduces green house gas

emission

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Background Cont..Currently Ethiopia’s contribution to GHG emissions is very low on a global scale. • However, the projected environmental impact of

conventional economic development indicates• On a per capita basis, emissions are set to increase by more

than 50% to 3.0 t CO2e – and will thus exceed the global target per capita emissions between 1 t and 2 t per capita in order to limit the negative effects on climate change.

Source: CRGE Strategy Document 2011

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Why Act Now?• Like much of Africa, Ethiopia has become warmer over

the past century and human induced climate change will bring further warming over the next century at unprecedented rates.

• If not checked; climate change will exacerbate many current environmental risks and introduce others

• Acting now is crucial before options disappear , costs increase, and impacts become irreversible. W

hy ?

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Why Act Differently?• Ever since the effects of climate change started to show up

in the country, a well thought out mitigation and adaptation plan has not been in place that could prevent effectively the negative effects of climate change and variability.

• Moving onto a more sustainable and climate smart pathway will require a transformational shift in current economic development practices marked by a major shift away from conventional approaches. W

hy ?

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Why Act Together?• Due to a very low adaptive capacity, and vulnerability;

extreme events have brought severe negative impacts on all socio-economic sectors across the country.

• The necessity for regional and global partnership and coordination in combating climate change applies at a national context too.

• While project based and isolated initiatives can not improve overall adaptive capacity and mitigation effort.

• Policies and strategies must initiate mainstreaming of adaptation and mitigation into all sectoral planning in a more coordinated manner.

W

hy ?

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Commitment: Ethiopia is committed to building a climate-resilient green economy. This commitment positions her at the forefront, in both national and global effort.Starting now than later: As part of the green economy strategy, the government of Ethiopia has selected four initiatives for fast-track implementation: • Exploiting the vast hydropower potential; • Large-scale promotion of advanced rural cooking technologies; • Efficiency improvements to the livestock value chain; • Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation

(REDD).

How to Act Now?

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• Identifying context-specific factors: Climate Risk, Sensitivity ,and Adaptive Capacity identification specific to the country, to the region, and to the rest of the continent must be identified to respond differently.

• Prioritizing Actions: as evidenced by the impacts of recent extreme events there is a need to immediately take measure in building adaptive capacity; for instance adaptation actions are required now irrespective of a deal on global green house gas emissions.

• Change in program design: Infrastructure must be built to withstand new extremes; agricultural productivity and efficiency of water use must improve to avoid further threatening of already stressed ecosystem. Source: World Development Report 2010.

How to Act Differently?

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• Promote the Exchange of Knowledge, Technology, and Information. Sharing the clear scientific view on the current state of knowledge in climate change and its potential environmental and socio-economic impacts. • Warning future risks to increase impacting people, crops,

availability of water and livelihoods.• Mainstreaming: Climate change adaptation and mitigation

measure is neither a one-off intervention nor a stand-alone activity. There should be an evolution to a more integrated, multi-level and multi-sector approach in addressing climate change impacts.

How to Act Together?

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• Current climate variability is already imposing a significant challenge to Ethiopia by affecting food security, water and energy supply, poverty reduction and sustainable development efforts.

• For Ethiopia Acting Now is essential; waiting is unaffordable.• Acting differently is vital in a changing world and increased

uncertainties in climate features ,in order to enhance adaptive capacity and decreased emission rates.

• Keeping the key role Ethiopia is playing in Global Climate Change initiatives in mind, the commitment it has shown to integrate the concept of climate change in all socio-economic sectrors indicates the level of national effort in bringing every body into the fight.

Conclusion