Ethiopia – Institutional strengthening support

SNAP meeting visit to waste-to-energy plant in Ethiopia 2016

Workstream:

Institutional strengthening support and training

Ongoing

started:

2015

Ethiopia has taken ambitious action to tackle the challenges of climate change and air pollution simultaneously. The Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy has worked extensively with the Coalition's Supporting National Planning (SNAP) Initiative to build integrated emission inventories and increase technical and human capacity within government to mitigate short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) such as black carbon and methane. This work is paving the way for informed policy making and emission reduction strategies that will ultimately direct in-country benefits for health and economic growth, particularly in priority sectors including household energy, transport, agriculture, waste.

Objectives

The SNAP Initiative is providing technical assistance and funding for Ethiopia to increase action on short-lived climate pollutants with the aim of increasing:

Institutional capacities for SLCP mitigation
Engagement of key national stakeholders
Awareness of SLCP issues and actions
SLCP mitigation action taken at the national level
Inclusion of SLCPs into relevant national planning processes and leverage financial resources dedicated to SLCP mitigation at the national level
Participation in CCAC activities

What we're doing

Phase I – Institutional Strengthening and Black Carbon Inventory Support – Complete

In 2015, a cooperation agreement was signed between UNEP and the Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy (MWIE) of Ethiopia following a call for proposals by the CCAC Secretariat. This agreement launched institutional strengthening activities through the SNAP Initiative aiming to sustainably increase human and technical capacity for SLCP and climate change mitigation, to improve planning and coordination on mitigation activities, and to increase commitment among national stakeholders.

A National SLCP Unit was created within the Climate Change Directorate of MWIE to work toward including SLCPs within the Ethiopian Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) strategy. A national expert was also recruited by the SNAP initiative to develop the first black carbon inventory report for Ethiopia, with technical assistance from the Stockholm Environment Institute and the LEAP-IBC tool. Following the establishment of this national team, an inception workshop was held in Addis Ababa in June 2016 to create awareness on SLCPS and build a national knowledge sharing platform for facilitating project implementation. Responsible sectoral stakeholders were identified from national and subnational government, NGOs, private companies, and civil society. Barriers to mitigation were also identified along with priority mitigation sectors including work in the household energy, energy, transport, agriculture and waste sectors.

As a result of these efforts, the Integrated Emission Inventory of Short-Lived Climate Pollutants, Air Pollutants and Greenhouse Gases for Ethiopia in 2010 was developed, quantifying black carbon and methane along with other SLCPs and greenhouse gases across a range of sectors. The residential sector was identified as the major source of black carbon with smaller contributions from vegetation fires, waste and transport. Agriculture was identified as the largest source of methane emissions, along with contributions from charcoal production.

Ethiopia continues to work with the SNAP Initiative to advance national planning on SLCP mitigation, including improving the emission inventory by quantifying emissions from additional sources such as the forestry sector, improving emission estimates from existing source sectors, estimating emissions for additional years, creating future baseline scenarios, and assessing the emission reduction potential of mitigation measures. In doing so, the most effective plans and policies in priority sectors can be identified to achieve direct in country air pollution and climate benefits.

Why we're doing this work

Home to almost 110 million people, the East African country of Ethiopia is increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, including increased temperatures, erratic rainfall patterns, droughts and other extreme weather events. At the same time, levels of air pollution that exceed World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines remain a threat to the health of people particularly in urban centres such as Addis Ababa, and rural populations who rely on solid biomass fuels such as wood for cooking. In 2018 it was estimated that air pollution in Ethiopia was responsible for 41,000 premature deaths, including 13,000 among children under the age of five. Short-lived climate pollutants derived from sectors including household energy, transportation, and agriculture contribute to both climate and air pollution phenomena, and impacts are expected to worsen with projected population growth if action is not taken.