Ethiopia’s vision and strategy for achieving middle-income-country status by 2025 while developing a green economy is set out in its Climate-Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) strategy, which is complemented by a series of five-year Growth and Transformation Plans. The CRGE strategy aims to ensure that Ethiopia implements a number of green initiatives to avoid exceeding its current greenhouse gas emission levels. The two main components of the CRGE strategy, climate resilience and green economy, complement and reinforce each other. Agriculture is one of the four pillars of the CRGE strategy, while industry is a major sector and waste management is a cross-cutting issue.
A significant issue for Ethiopia, however, is that the strategies developed by sector ministries are not supported by sectoral policies for implementation, and there is a pressing need to formulate a comprehensive agricultural policy and a green industrial development policy to augment the country’s green economy development efforts and incentivize the development of green businesses. Adoption of a sustainable consumption and production policy and framework are also of paramount importance to provide overall direction for the adoption of sustainable consumption and production practices in all economic sectors in Ethiopia. Ethiopia has identified a green industrial development policy as key for shaping the policy landscape in the country and closing an identified gap.
In addition to identifying gaps in policies, regulations, laws and standards in the priority sectors to address potential roadblocks to green business development, the policy support component of SWITCH Africa Green supports the formulation of specific policies, regulations and standards and the establishment or strengthening of the institutions needed for resource-efficient and green businesses to emerge and grow.
