ETHIOPIAN PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANG FIRST ASSESSMENT REPORT WORKING GROUP I REPORT ON CLIMATE CHANGE OVER ETHIOPIA I PHYSICAL SCIENCE BASIS.

Abstract

The increased frequency of extreme weather events which faced Ethiopia in the 20th century may be one major impetus for enhancing the visibility of climate change issues over the country, Thus, research activities dealing with finding the major causes of these increasingly occurring extreme and severe weather and climatic events in the country date from the 1980s onwards (Gissila et al, 2004). The major land marks of official research reports on Climate change over Ethiopia include climate change assessment reports coordinated by the National Meteorological Agency which included, US country climate change study report on climatic trend and vulnerability to climate change in 1996, the Initial National Communication Report of Ethiopia to the conference of the parties in 2001 and the National Adaptation Plan of Action (Ethiopia's NAPA report) in 2007. Since the publication of the NAPA report, various research reports have confirmed that the country should face climate change issues, and one of the objectives of this synthesis report is to undertake a general review and assessment of the results of climate change research over the country. Anthropogenic climate change is one of the most pressing problems, which have emerged on our planet in the 20th century, needing serious attention on the part of Governments, the United Nations Organization and the Public. The major milestones in the science of climate research that brought the immensity of the problem to the attention of the public were the first and the second World Climate Conferences in 1979 and in 1990, where solid evidences on global warming and climate change were presented by Climate scientists and researchers based by the study of direct and proxy climate data. The first official admission of the UN Body on the problem of global warming and climate change was, when the two specialized agencies of the United Nations, the United Nations Environmental Program(UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization(WMO) decided in 1988 to set up an Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change (an international panel of climate scientists, researchers and experts delegated by their Governments) to undertake a more thorough investigation on this newly emerging problem of global warming and climate change, and come out with concrete proposals for the decision makers. In 1990, the first Assessment report on global warming and climate change was released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and a call for a global treaty regarding global warming and climate change was put as a proposal by the IPCC. In the same year, the issue was raised in the United Nations General Assembly and negotiations on a framework convention began. In 1991, the first meeting of the Inter-Governmental Negotiating Committee (INC) took place and in 1992, the Inter Governmental Negotiating committee adopted the UNFCC text, and at the earth summit in Rio, the UNFCC was opened for signature and in 1994 the UNFCC entered force.