ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the opportunities and challenges posed by low carbon development in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is one of the world’s least developed countries. Due to marginal emissions and high vulnerability to climate change, it has traditionally focused on adapting to the impacts of climate change rather than focusing on low carbon development. Low carbon development in countries like Ethiopia is not about emission reductions, but about the opportunities and benefits low carbon development can bring for human development. This chapter, which is based on fieldwork, explores some of these opportunities and stresses the need for combining low carbon development with key development priorities related to poverty reduction and economic growth. The chapter also addresses the state and non-state actors driving low carbon development in Ethiopia, their motives and potential trade-offs related to low carbon development.
