Ethiopia is carrying out multi-dollar investments in renewable energy to reduce carbon emissions, Finance Minister Ahmed Shide said.
Speaking at a panel discussion organized at the launch of the Long Term Low Emission Development Strategy today, Finance Minister Ahmed Shide said Ethiopia’s LT-LEDS strategy is very timely and it would help to further strengthen ongoing development activities.
He added that the government has actively worked to deal with the impact of climate change, activating climate policy and green development strategy.
He explained that the Green Legacy Initiatives (GLI) is part of this and Ethiopia has been giving attention to climate change and made massive activities in reducing carbon emissions.
Over the past 14 years, Ethiopia has directly mobilized one billion USD for climate-specific issues, excluding other related multi-billion investments.
“In the past years, we have invested a lot of resources from Ethiopia and carried out integrated operations related to climate change. It is something that the country is very proud of. For example, if we only look at renewable energy, various energy projects are being built and are providing services,” he said.
“This is carbon neutral energy, especially hydropower, and wind power. Now, since Public Private Partnership (PPP) investment is being done with solar, it means that we are doing multi-dollar investments,” he added.
The Ethio-Djobuti railway is playing a crucial role in our efforts to mitigate climate change, he said adding that this is highly reducing carbon emission.
We are working to introduce an electric bus and a huge investment is being carried out in landscape restoration by the government and partners which is also supportive of the initiative.
Regarding innovative finance opportunities, the government is formulating favorable policies, for example, for investors who want to engage in renewable energy, policy space has already been operational to enable them to engage in energy generation through PPP.
Compared to other countries, Ethiopia is relatively spearheading climate finance, climate investment, and climate governance.
Investing in climate change is protecting the livelihood of our people, he said, adding that all what we need is to work together to mobilize resources and realize this ambitious plan.
Ethiopia requires financial and technical support to implement the LT-LEDS and we request the international community for support.
Regarding climate finance, global climate finance flow to Least Developing Countries is very low compared to their pledges.
Developed countries have pledged to provide 100 billion US dollars per year in climate finance to developing countries through multilateral, bilateral, and other global funds, but the pledge was confirmed to have failed at the 26th Conference held in Glasgow, UK.
According to the minister, the financial need to address global climate change is now growing and some 5.8 trillion USD is required.
For Ethiopia, to reach the net-zero targets in 2050, the total investment requirements of the LT-LEDS actions are estimated to be at least around 157 billion USD, the minister said adding that this indicates that our development strategy needs to be integrated with climate change.
The main climate interventions of the strategy include forestry, energy, livestock, agriculture, waste sector, and industrial products and process used, it was learned.
Source: Ethiopian News Agency