Addis Ababa, Ethiopia -November 8, 2013 -Over the last two months, the Ethiopian Government has unveiled three crucial documents to bring the Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) vision into action. These documents are the foundational documents for the mechanisms of implementation of the CRGE vision as well as the Climate Resilience (CR) strategy for agriculture. The CRGE vision, which was launched in November 2011, sets the ambition of Ethiopia having a middle income status by 2025 while building resilience to the shocks of climate change and achieving growth with a zero net increase in carbon emissions from 2010 levels. For the past two years, GGGI Ethiopia has been working closely with the government in all the stages of planning and strategizing how best to bring this vision to reality on the ground.
At two workshops in October, Ethiopia unveiled the Sectoral Reduction Mechanism (SRM) Framework, which outlines the mechanism for implementation of the CRGE; the Operational Manual for the CRGE Facility that sets out the detailed mechanics of a new institution that will attract, pool and deploy funding to meet the CRGE vision; and the Climate Resilience Strategy for agriculture that analyzes the risk posed by climate change and outlines priority strategies building climate resilience in the critical agriculture sector.
The SRM Framework and The CRGE Facility Operation Manual were rolled out in a 3-day validation workshop organized jointly by the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MEF) and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MOFED). In essence, the SRM Framework outlines the process by which line ministries should develop plans for funding from the CRGE Facility, which in turn is the pooled financing mechanism of the government.
The Ministry of Agriculture then followed up with another lively workshop in November in Addis Ababa, where it revealed its CR strategy with other regional agricultural ministries as well as related line ministers and international partners present for review, comments and validation. The Agricultural CR strategy launch was a monumental step towards fulfilling the national CR strategies as the Ministry will move quickly to implementation. The strategy highlighted that temperatures have already risen by one degree in Ethiopia with future climate change potentially costing up to 10% of GDP in 2050. GGGI played a major role in supporting the development of the Agricultural CR strategy and is now working with the Ministry of Water and Energy to develop their CR Stagey which is expected to be validated and published early next year.
UK Funding
UK Aid – DFID Ethiopia is contributing GBP 15 million (USD 24 million) to the CRGE Facility to support the Government of Ethiopia in its ambition to build a Climate Resilient Green Economy. These funds will be used to support the implementation of the Sector Reduction Mechanism’s process: to generate and fund high quality strategic investments that respond to the priorities of the Government of Ethiopia. This finance will be used to support the Government of Ethiopia to build a Climate Resilient Green Economy across different sectors. This transformative approach developed by the Government of Ethiopia will provide a clear example of green economic transformation, not only in Africa but across the world.