Adaptation action for Addis Ababa

But it also faces a range of climate hazards and development challenges, so improving climate change resilience is vital if the city is to meet its ambitions.

Opportunity

In order to meet its economic and social development goals, and as a member of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, Addis Ababa needed help with its climate action planning and the city’s resilience to climate hazards had to be improved. A sound action plan was required to help key city stakeholders understand current and future climate risks and be able to identify actionable changes across the city.

Solution

Our climate resilience team, in collaboration with Ricardo Energy & Environment, completed a climate risk scoping assessment, identifying key climate risks, vulnerable areas within the city and knowledge gaps. Climate change risk and adaptive capacity assessments were undertaken, with the results refined through virtual workshops with multi-sector city bodies. A suite of adaptation opportunities was identified and prioritised with city stakeholders via surveys and a follow-up virtual workshop, taking climate mitigation co-benefits and cross-sectoral collaborative opportunities into consideration.

Outcome

Our team successfully delivered effective and valuable capacity building despite the COVID-19 pandemic, proving that work on climate action can progress meaningfully in unchartered, mostly virtual operating environments. The project has helped the C40 City Advisory team and local city stakeholders gain a greater understanding of climate hazards, risks, and adaptation opportunities. Our work has directly supported the development of a climate action plan, which was published in October 2021 by the Addis Ababa Environmental Protection and Green Development Commission, in collaboration with C40 Cities. Realising these adaptation actions, will help Addis Ababa achieve its goal of becoming a healthy and liveable city, and support Ethiopia’s vision of transitioning to a middle-income, climate-resilient, green economy by 2025.