ADDIS ABABA, June 5 (Xinhua) -- Marking the World Environment Day on Sunday, Ethiopia eyes to promote environment protection efforts toward building climate resilience and green economy.
Led by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the World Environment Day has been marked annually on June 5 since 1973.
The theme for this year is "Only One Earth," calling for collective, transformative action on a global scale to celebrate, protect and restore planet earth.
DAUNTING CHALLENGES
According to the Ethiopian Environmental Protection Authority (EEPA), Ethiopia only contributes to an estimated 0.04 percent of the global greenhouse gas emission, but is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, mainly due to its high dependence on rain-fed agriculture and natural resources, as well as its relatively low adaptive capacity.
Speaking to Xinhua recently, EEPA director-general Getahun Garedew said the east African country is now facing the brunt of climate change, and needs to urgently build climate resilience capability.
"Ethiopia is contributing very little towards climate change but being affected very hugely," he said. "Biodiversity loss is another challenge, which is also a worldwide problem. The other problem is also pollution and waste."
"Ethiopia cannot stand alone on these triple planetary problems," Garedew said, referring to climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental pollution.
According to EEPA figures, there has been considerable evidence of climate change impacts in Ethiopia over the last 50 years.
At the national level, temperatures have increased by an average of around 1 degree Celsius since the 1960s. Rainfall is subject to high inter-annual and intra-annual variability, in which yearly variation around mean rainfall level is 25 percent and can increase to 50 percent in some parts of the country.
Extreme weather events like droughts and floods have also become more frequent in Ethiopia.
According to Garedew, as the adverse effects of climate change persists, heavy rains, flooding and soil erosion are putting both urban and rural infrastructure at risk, particularly for the vulnerable segment of the population.
ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION EFFORTS
Ethiopia, through its Updated Nationally Determined Contributions document covering the period from 2020 to 2030, builds upon several national and international climate and development policy initiatives in line with the country's 10-Year Development Plan, which considers supporting climate resilience and a green economy as one of its strategic pillars.
"As a nation, we are committed to environmental protection. In Ethiopia, we brought environmental protection to the level of the constitution," Garedew said.
Ethiopia has recently embarked on an ambitious tree-planting initiative, planting over 350 million trees in a single day.
The massive project, a personal initiative of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, is part of the government's plan to end rising deforestation, "a daunting challenge" to the country's green economy strategy.
According to Garedew, lack of awareness is one major challenge that led to further degradation of the environment, which calls for strong efforts to educate the general public, investors as well as private and public institutions to safeguard the environment.
As Ethiopia's economy is set to undergo structural change in the coming years, anchored by the manufacturing sector and with a higher pace of urbanization, the emerging realities are said to have cumulative repercussions on the pattern of emission.
Garedew said various efforts are underway to mitigate the impact of these emerging realities on the environment. Ethiopia's 10-Year Development Plan calls for reduction of greenhouse gas emission in all economic activities.
MARKING WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY
This year's edition of the annual World Environment Day celebrations is a four-day affair in Ethiopia, hosted by the EEPA and the UNEP, featuring activities ranging from awareness-raising panel discussions, exhibitions to promotion of environment-friendly initiatives.
UNEP representative to Ethiopia Margaret Oduk said the global community should rethink the current business-as-usual modality as the world is faced with "a nature emergency mode."
"We only have one planet; we only have one earth that we have to live on. So, we must protect it as it is our only home," Oduk told a recent briefing on this year's World Environment Day celebrations.
"We really must make sure that we collectively - as governments, as individuals, as civil societies, and particularly the youth - that we really take care of the environment because it is the only one that we have," she added.
According to Garedew, the EEPA director-general, the annual celebrations call for the need to live sustainably in harmony with nature, and the possibilities for shifting to a greener lifestyle through both policies and individual choices.
He said events such as the World Environment Day help to inform the general public to join in the sustainable protection of the environment toward promoting environment-friendly development at a national level and lifestyle from an individual perspective. ■