FM & Deputy PM Demeke Confers with President-Designate of COP26

Addis Ababa January 29/2021 (ENA) Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Demeke Mekonnen had a fruitful discussion with UK’s President-Designate of COP 26 for climate change, Rt. Hon. Alok Sharma on Thursday.

During the discussion, Rt. Hon. Sharma applauded Ethiopia’s remarkable achievement with regard to adaptation and efforts made to combat the effects of climate change and added that Ethiopia has become a beacon of hope for the region.

The President-Designate also indicated that UK as host of the COP 26 expects ambitious targets to be achieved at the Conference and Ethiopia’s experience in terms of commitment to global outcomes is exemplary.

He expressed his confidence that Ethiopia will play a prominent role in various groups in the negotiations in a run up to the Conference in Glasgow.

Demeke Mekonnen said on his part that Ethiopia is glad to see UK host this year’s Conference of the Parities meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at which it has much to bring to this year’s COP to achieve ambitious outcome.  

Ethiopians and people of the Horn of Africa have already been bearing the brunt of climate change as manifested in the form of recurrent drought, flooding, and other natural calamities which pose greater challenge for their development, Demeke pointed out.

Ethiopia has been implementing the Climate Resilient Green Economy Strategy with the aim to build a green and resilient economy by 2030, the Foreign Minister told Sharma.

According to him, Ethiopia has recently submitted comprehensive summary of its enhanced Nationally Determined Contribution to UNFCCC and under its Green Legacy national flagship initiative and aspires to plant more than 20 billion tree seedlings within four years.

He assured Sharma that Ethiopia is ready to actively participate in the preparatory process and at the Conference itself and is determined to showcase some of its best practices and forge partnership in curbing the effects of climate change.

COP26 is the next annual UN climate change conference.

COP stands for Conference of the Parties, and the summit will be attended by the countries that signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – a treaty that came into force in 1994.