Climate Change Education for Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) of Ethiopia

Abstract

Climate change will affect all of us, but most seriously affected will be those countries and people that depend primarily on agriculture and have few opportunities for economic diversification and structural change. Ethiopia, where the majority of the population lives in rural areas and is engaged in agriculture, is one of the most vulnerable countries. Its dependence on rain fed agriculture makes the country particularly exposed to the effects of climate change. Besides the direct effects such as an increase in average temperature or a change in rainfall patterns, climate change also presents the necessity and opportunity to switch to a new, sustainable development model. To this end, the Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) has recently initiated the Climate-Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) initiative to protect the country from the adverse effects of climate change and to build a green economy that will help realize its ambition of reaching middle income status before 2025. The central theme of this paper is on the salient issues that underpin the importance of climate change education for the implementation of the CRGE initiative and thereby achieving sustainable development in the country.