Ethiopian Climate Change Sector Reform Performance Contract

Ethiopia is one of the most vulnerable countries to the impacts of climate change, with recurrent droughts, floods, and other extreme weather events. These shocks have a significant impact on food security, water resources, and livelihoods.

Large-scale deforestation across the country contributes to escalating climate change by increasing carbon dioxide emission and raising temperature. Carbon dioxide released from cement factories—one of the largest and fastest growing industries— also adds to the problem.

To address these challenges, the country promotes sustainable development and low-carbon growth by implementing the Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) Strategy. Formulated in 2011, the strategy makes Ethiopia a global leader in putting climate action at the centre of its development agenda. Although the government already promotes sustainable forest management, the country faces many challenges in implementing effective forest-based climate mitigation measures, regulating carbon emission from cement factories, and measuring, reporting and verifying green-house gas emissions.

Therefore, in 2019, the government of Ethiopia launched the Climate Change Sector Reform Performance Contract (CCSRPC) project to support the implementation of the CRGE strategy by reducing Green House Gas (GHG) emissions from forestry and cement sectors, establishing a fully-functional Measuring – Reporting - Verification (MRV) system for emissions and building the capacity of stakeholders to effectively plan and budget for achieving Climate Change objectives. Funded by the European Union (EU), the CCSRPC project improved the capacity of stakeholders that implement climate change mitigation actions through training, policy dialogue and exchanges on forest preservation, land use monitoring and energy efficiency in the industrial sector. the project was critical for improving the institutional and policy frameworks for climate change, enhancing the capacity of stakeholders, and supporting the implementation of Ethiopia’s Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) strategy.