Last year in Paris, the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 11th session of the Meeting of the Parties to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegnre minded the conference that, “Every nation has to contribute. Of course, national contributions need to be differentiated, reflecting responsibility, need, and capacity. It is welcome that the national contributions submitted this year have reduced the extent of projected global warming over the century ahead. But let us not pretend that a future of around 3 degrees of warming is something to celebrate”.
“If poor people like us can resolve to create a carbon neutral economy, surely better placed nations can and should do much more.”…the global partnership and cooperation should provide for adequate support for low-carbon development and the creation of resilient societies and ecosystems.”
Those were not empty promises but real commitments demonstrated by the plans and activities of the government of Ethiopia.
Indeed, Ethiopia’s commitment to environment is enshrined in the constitution. The Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia recognized in Article 92 “Environmental Objectives.” It states that:
– “Government shall endeavor to ensure that all Ethiopians live in a clean and healthy environment.
– The design and implementation of programs and projects of development shall not damage or destroy the environment.
– People have the right to full consultation and to the expression of views in the planning and implementations of environmental policies and projects that affect them directly.
– Government and citizens shall have the duty to protect the environment.
Similarly, the government’s overall policy goal set two decades ago envisaged to improve and enhance the health and quality of life of all Ethiopians and to promote sustainable social and economic development through the sound management and use of natural, human-made and cultural resources and the environment as a whole so as to meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Indeed, Ethiopia took a proactive step to contribute towards addressing climate change four years ago. The government prepared and launched the most progressive and forward-looking development plan, the Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE). Ethiopia was one of the first countries to formally merge policy agendas around climate resilience and the green economy at a national planning level by adopting a Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) Vision and Strategy in 2011.
The green economy strategy, Climate Resilient Green Economy, was launched in 2011, addressing climate change adaptation and mitigation, while pursuing the goals of economic growth, zero net emissions and building resilience. The Climate Resilient Green Economy Facility was launched in September 2012, to support the government’s vision of becoming a middle-income economy with low carbon growth by 2025.
The scale of attention political commitment allotted to climate change is attested in a recent publication, titled “Public spending on climate change in Africa”. According to the report:
The intention of the government’s first Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) – the national development strategy – was to promote structural development in the economy that would increase the contributions of the industry and services sectors to GDP, alongside a commensurate reduction in the share of agriculture. Higher growth in contribution to GDP of services and industry compared with agriculture holds particular challenges and opportunities with regard to climate change. An increasing share of GDP generated from services and industry, with less immediate vulnerability to changes in climate, should increase Ethiopia’s economic resilience.
These sectors add more value than agriculture, raising the prospect of larger tax revenues to support higher public expenditure that could be directed at climate-relevant programmes. However, agriculture remains the employer of the largest proportion of the workforce (estimated at around 80%). This suggests that, while structural change means an increasing share of GDP that is less directly affected by a changing climate, employment – and particularly rural livelihoods – will remain vulnerable.
Total spending on climate change-relevant activities grew in cash terms over the four-year period. Climate change-relevant expenditure grew most strongly. The strong growth registered in that year owes to a large investment made by the government in road construction, considered to a climate change-relevant activity.
The average annual percentage share of climate change-relevant expenditure over the four years was11% of total government expenditure. Although climate change-relevant expenditure grew over the period under review, overall it grew less strongly than total government expenditure (particularly in the last year of the study), resulting in a lower share of expenditure by the end of the period.
Comparison of climate change-relevant expenditure with GDP shows the same trend, with an average of just under 2% of GDP: such expenditure grew over the four-year period but this growth did not fully keep pace with the expansion in GDP. In line with expenditure on climate change-related activities as a percentage of government spending, climate change-related expenditures as a share of GDP increased substantially in 2009/10 before falling back in the two following years.
Ethiopia’s Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) Strategy foresees a significant level of funding becoming available from climate funds to help finance green growth initiatives, at a level of approximately $20 billion per year in the short. This represents a very significant amount in the context of the Ethiopian economy. Compared with this expectation, over the four-year study period budget expenditure was approximately$440 million per year. If the strategy is to be delivered, much more effort is needed to mobilize additional resources, both domestically and internationally.
The small share of climate change-relevant expenditure in GDP may owe in part to the team using only the federal government budget for information. Subnational government expenditures on such activities both from their development and recurrent budgets and from extra budgetary sources are not included in this analysis because of lack of access to reliable data. This means the figures presented above likely represent a ‘low-end’ estimate for total expenditure on climate change-relevant activities.
Indeed, climate change continues to be the focus of the Second Growth and Transformation Plan. As the major objectives of the plan underlined:
Enabling rapid and equitable economic growth to be achieved in sustainable and environmentally sound manner, ensuring the implementation of the CRGE strategy in each sector of the economy and increasing the economic and social impact of the forest sector through enhancing forest development, protection, and utilization are the objectives of the sector in the second GTP.
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