Ethiopia Launches Project To Support Efforts To Reduce Emissions

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ADDIS ABABA, April 3 (ENA) — A project aimed at supporting Ethiopia’s REDD (Reducing Emissions from Degradation and Deforestation) Monitoring, Reporting and Validation (MRV) activities has been launched here.

The two-year project, being carried out with the co-operation of various German organisations, will help to get high resolution satellite images to measure the carbon absorption capacity of forests.

The satellite images will help scientists to know the storage capacity of the forest of 900,000 hectares of land in all parts of the country.

The information gathered from those images will help Ethiopia access the carbon trade, a mechanism allowing the offset of emissions in developed countries by the investment in emission reduction projects in developing countries.

The other component of the project is to train personnel on Monitoring, Reporting and Validation (MRV) activities, to help the country report and validate data from those images.

Upon completion in two years, the project will help to develop a national system which enables Ethiopia to classify and interpret data, measure carbon absorption capacity as well as report and validate the data.
The project, which costs 400,000 euros, will be carried out by the Ministry of Forestry in collaboration with German partners BlackBridge, RSS (Remote Sensing Solutions) GmbH as well as GIZ.

State Minister for Environment and Forests Kebede Yimam acknowledged the efforts made by the consortium of German organisations in building capacity through providing satellite images as well as training of individuals.

The project will help to build the country’s capacity in the efforts to realise a Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) strategy, which envisages reaching middle-income status by 2025 with low carbon emissions.

Forestry is one of the four pillars that the Green Economy relies upon and targets protection and re-establishing forests for the economic and ecosystem services.

The government has transformed the Environmental Protection Authority to the Ministry of Environment and Forest to increase forest coverage thereby contributes to the reduction of carbon emissions, Yimam said.

Ethiopia launched its Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) in 2011, ahead of the 17th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP17).

The green economy strategy is anchored in Ethiopia’s ambition to become a low carbon middle income economy by 2025.

It is expected to help the country curb the rise in green house emissions as the country accelerates its growth rate over the coming years by providing a focus on renewable and efficient sources of energy and clean productions process in both agriculture and industry, while enhancing and managing its forests sustainably.