Authorities last week unveiled a Long Term Low Emission Development Strategy or LT-LEDS, which will serve as a roadmap for long-term decarburization and climate resilient development for Ethiopia.
The LED strategy was prepared based on the 2015 Paris Climate Accord that encourages countries to set their own emission-reduction targets, reviewed every five years to raise ambitions.
The newly launched national strategy provides a roadmap on how to reach a net zero emission target by 2050 while delivering delivering development objectives.
Also read: Ethiopian begins direct flight to Karachi
It offers “an opportunity to consider interactions, synergies and trade-offs between different sectoral climate goals and national development priorities,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted.
The strategy was launched in an event attended by senior federal and regional government officials, along with international entities that supported the development of this pivotal national framework.
In his opening remarks, Deputy Primer and foreign minister Demeke Mekonnen said climate change has continued to drastically affect the livelihoods of people by inducing drought and ecological imbalance, among others.
The minister added that Ethiopia is implementing various green economy activities to withstand the challenges.
Among these, projects such as the Green Legacy Initiative (GLI) and capitalizing of renewable energy sources, which Ethiopia is endowed with, are part and parcel of the climate agenda, Demeke added.
He further stated that, through the GLI, Ethiopia is conducting “Green Diplomacy” in East Africa and wants to further expand the engagement at continental level.
It’s high time to come together and exert maximum efforts to overcome the challenges, demeke said, calling on partners to support Ethiopia’s initiative.
Also read: IFAD grants US$100M+ to Ethiopia’s agriculture program
Developing countries including Ethiopia are bearing the brunt of climate change induced phenomena despite minimal contributions to global carbon emissions.
Under the 2015 Paris agreement, developed nations made a commitment to provide $100 Billion funding annually by 2020 to help developing nations deal with the effects of climate change, and build greener economies. They, however, failed to deliver on their comitments.
