Ethiopia Reiterates Commitment to Address Crises of Climate Change, Biodiversity Loss

Minister of Planning and Development, Fitsum Assefa addressed the 6th session of the UN environment Assembly (UNEA6) which is being held in Nairobi, Kenya from 26 Feb to 1 march 2024.

In sideline of UNEA6, the Minister also engaged in a number of bilateral and Africa regional environmental events, according to Ministry of Planning and Development of Ethiopia.

In her statement during the UNEA6 high level segment held today the minister informed the participants about the unwavering commitment of Ethiopia in addressing the triple planetary crises of our planet namely climate change and biodiversity loss.

Fitsum shared Ethiopia’s successful achievements in addressing the aforementioned challenges through its Green Legacy initiative where it manages to plant 32.5 billion tree and other agroforestry seedlings in the last five years through mobilizing 25 million of its citizens annually since the launching of the initiative in 2019.

The Minister also said that Ethiopia’s extended commitment for the unified voi
ces of Africa in international environmental negotiations through her capacity of President of Africa Ministerial Conference on Environment (AMCEN) which will run for the 2024 and 2025.

Fitsum expressed her commitment to closely following up the Africa Group of Negotiators (AGN) and to give necessary guidance to the group for a unified voice as a continent.

In her afternoon engagement during the UNEA6 today Fitsum successfully convened the AMCEN bureau meeting as of her capacity of being AMCEN President.

Outstanding issues were discussed and put forward on the next steps including deciding to convene AMCEN special session on land degradation, desertification and drought in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire on 2-5 September 2024.

The session also envisaged the preparations of Africa on UNCCD COP16 which is to be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and other international engagements such as UNFCCC COP29.

The Minister held bilateral meetings with representatives of Mauritania, Algeria, Morocco and Executive Secretary of UN
Convention on Combating Desertification (UNCCD) and discussed outstanding bilateral agendas on her national capacity and being AMCEN President.

In the respective bilateral meetings, the two parties agreed to closely work towards the common environmental agenda and enhancing the environmental protection agenda including through signing an MOU across different thematic areas.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency