Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has officially launched the 12km section of the 56km ‘Beautifying Sheger Project’ funded by Chinese government on October 1, 2019.
The Beautifying Sheger Project is a three-year initiative of the Prime Minister aimed at elevating the city to a site of urban tourism by rehabilitating water bodies.
The first phase of the project will be built by the China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) with a grant secured earlier this year from the Chinese Government.
The Premier has discussed the plan with the engineers of China Urban Construction Design and Research Institute during his visit to China some months ago while attending the Belt and Road Forum.
The Beautifying Sheger project runs along the rivers of Addis Ababa, developing 56km of green spaces starting from Entoto to Akaki which is believed to cost 29 billion birr.
The first part of the Chinese funded section should cost 50 million USD and take eight months.
“We are behind you Prime Minister,” said Tan Jingmin ambassador of China to Ethiopia. “We will help to build this Sheger project a land mark in Ethiopia as well as in Africa.”
This part of the Beautifying Sheger Project includes the construction of Central Square and treatment of 12 km of river running from Entoto Mountain to Peacock which includes cleaning up and rehabilitating the river side.
“The project is intended to make Addis Ababa live up to its name,” the PM said.
“Ethiopia’s existence and prosperity relies on the hard work and commitment of its people and nothing can deter Ethiopia’s journey towards prosperity,” stressed Prime Minister Abiy.
A fundraising dinner called, ‘Dine for Sheger’ in May to mobilize resources for the implementation of the project, brought business owners, company CEOs, international organizations, heads and members of the diplomatic community and countries to buy tickets at 5,000,000 Birr per plate raising over 1.2 billion birr.
“I personally will follow the project every single day to deliver as it is promised,” said the Prime Minister.
According to the officials from CCCC, more than 200 Chinese professionals will work together with Ethiopians 24 hours a day to execute the projects on time.
The second one is scheduled to begin after three months and end in the second quarter of 2021 and involves the construction of central plaza which includes the palace of science and technology as well as children’s paradise and art garden.
Senior government officials, including the Minister of Finance, Ahmed Shide, Minister of Water, Irrigation and Energy, Seleshi Bekele, and Deputy Mayor of Addis Ababa city, Takele Uma, attended the launching ceremony of the project.
Presently, the green cover of Addis Ababa is estimated to be 0.3 meter square per capita and the sheger project is expected to lift the per capita to seven square meters.
PM launches Chinese funded beautifying Sheger project
Huge Chinese genomics firm starts up in Addis
The Ethiopian Biotechnology Institute (EBTi), Ethiopian Academy of Sciences (EAS) and Beijing Genomics Institute Group (BGI), a genome sequencing company or DNA sequence, signed a tripartite letter of intent for the Chinese company to establish an African branch in Addis Ababa.
China Shenzhen is the world’s biggest genomics firm. BGI is going to open its Africa base in Ethiopia.
Even though the company is relatively new and was formed 20 years ago, the Shenzhen based company is the biggest global genomics enterprise.
It was popular before but now it is the best institute in relation to genomic sector that samples from every corner of the world send to the company for sequencing and analyzing the sequence, according to Kassahun Tesfaye, Director General of EBTi.
He said that they have best technological and bioinformatics knowledge capacity than anywhere. “in every sequencing project in the world BGI is there,” he added.
“As Ethiopia is partnering with them it is a good move since we have targets to expand the bio technology sector,” the EBTi head said.
The tripartite agreement focuses on BGI intent to establish BGI-Africa (African genomic institute as a branch of BGI) in Addis Ababa, EBTi will play a facilitation role in the establishment of BGI Africa in Addis Ababa and formation of mutually beneficial cooperative projects between Ethiopian institutions and BGI.
Based on the agreement the EAS role is facilitating of training for young researchers in genomic and bioinformatics skills at BGI through a comparative process.
In February 2018 the Ethiopian institute and the company signed a memo that is now upgraded with the latest intent. This agreement included the Ethiopia side to provide some sort of space, while the Chinese firm will send equipment to the lab that will be under the control of the institute.
On the first scale the lab will be service provider than market oriented. “Our main vision is establishing BGI Africa Genomic Institute in Ethiopia but at this phase in our lab forming BGI’s small lab and giving sequence facility that gradually will be changed to the continental center,” the bio expert told Capital.
He said that recently they have opened facility in South Africa that Ethiopia want to follow the same modality.
“The major thing is owning the sequencing database here. At the current stage sequencing is being undertaken in other places that means the data is deposited at the sequence center that shall raise the ownership claim,” Kassahun said.
“In the future genetic information has become money so owning the sequence and data indicates that we shall gain from it and enable to establish a bank here. If Ethiopian materials that can be animal, human, plant or bacteria are sequenced here then we shall have ownership on the data,” he clarified.
At the current level the country may get the sequence but the data deposited at the genomic centers out of the country.
Regarding pre-health conditions the Chinese firm is engaged on several tests that will be commenced here when the lab is formed. It is also good for the agriculture sector, according to Kassahun.
“Prenatal screening, hereditary cancer screening, testing for rare diseases and in aiding precision medicine research and shall be tested in the Ethiopian lab,” he said.
“Ethiopian’s bio diversity on microbial, plants and animals is very rich but we don’t use it properly because of capacity,” he says. “Capacity means is the laboratory infrastructure when we have it we can sequence and we look up how to use the resources and claim the ownership of the data.”
The lab shall be realized in the current budget year and they will provide support in kind, while Ethiopian technicians will train at their facility and will manage the lab.
According to the agreement the lab technicians will be Ethiopian and the operational cost will be cover by the Ethiopian side.
“Using Ethiopian technicians shall also boost human capital in the sector, which is a good advantage to expand the genomic sector,” he said.
BGI Genomics is a publicly listed commercial genomics company, providing a wide range of next generation sequencing services and a broad portfolio of genetic tests for medical institutions, research institutions and other public and private partners.
Established in 1999 is providing genomics expertise in order to advance life science research and improve human health for the benefit of mankind.
Numerous scientific partners, healthcare providers and pharmaceutical companies rely on the world leading bio-informatics research and development, large scale computing infrastructure for data output and storage, and proprietary sequencing platforms.
Besides different labs in China the company has offices and laboratories in different countries in Asia Pacific region, North America and Europe.
EU’s The “Green New Deal”
Continued from last week.
In Europe and America, the price of carbon is rising again, thanks to the recovering economy and recent reforms in the European Union’s emissions and trading system, the world’s first major carbon market. These reforms reduced the amount of free carbon credits available, propelling the price on carbon up again to €25 to €30 per ton. These increases improve Europe’s chance to fulfil its climate goals. But for Europe to have a realistic chance of reaching carbon neutrality and for an EU Green New Deal to be anything other than a political fig leaf, a far higher price on carbon will be required in the years ahead.
Alan Riley, a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Statecraft in London stressed that how much higher the price of carbon be will provoke a huge debate, but it is noteworthy that the five-fold increase in the price under the emissions and trading system in the last two years has not impeded Europe’s economic recovery. For the future, however, European Commission President Von der Leyen’s target will cause significant economic dislocation. Emphasising this point, Alan Riley noted that European gasoline prices will rise further, coal and even natural gas-powered electricity must become uncompetitive versus renewables, and jet fuel prices will rise. Advances in technology may soon eliminate bulk fuel for ships. Buildings and construction sites across Europe will have to be retrofitted and redesigned to reduce and eventually erase their carbon footprint.
Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, a Research Associate at the Institute for International Economics stated that estimating the optimal price of carbon in Europe is likely to be futile. But a “Green New Deal” targeting carbon neutrality is at heart a political choice in Europe, requiring that it be easy to explain to the public to get its support. A big round number makes sense – perhaps €100 per ton in 2025 and rising.
But a price on carbon of that magnitude will require drastic reforms. The emissions and trading system (ETS) would have to cover all EU economic sectors, and the number of carbon emissions credits available for trade would have to be further curtailed. Jacob Funk Kirkegaard stressed that in theory, member states could undertake these changes, fueling tensions among countries.
The EU may need to establish a minimum price for carbon. Such a price floor would have to be agreed decades into the future (i.e. made predictable) to enable businesses to adjust and ensure temporary business-cycle-driven drops in the carbon price are blunted and long-term investment incentives maintained. To secure the desired reduction in emissions, the price floor would have to rise faster – say 5 percentage points a year – than headline inflation. Alternatively, the European Union could also introduce an outright carbon tax on all emissions again, set at a higher level than current emissions and trading system prices and rising faster than inflation between now and 2050.
All these has political and economic implications. According to Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, a high carbon price has three important broader political and economic implications for the EU. First, a carbon border adjustment tax is inevitable. A carbon price of this magnitude will put EU businesses at a competitive disadvantage versus imported goods. Imposing a new carbon border adjustment tax is inevitable, effectively setting tariffs on imported goods from economies without equivalent carbon prices, perhaps exempting or reimbursing poor countries. Such a tax or tariff will certainly set up a confrontation with the United States, if the Trump administration’s policies continue. On the other hand, Senator Elizabeth Warren has called for tariffs on carbon intensive imports if she is elected president.
Second, carbon revenues will change the distribution of EU revenue generation and disbursements. The envisioned carbon price is designed to raise significant new government revenue. EU general government finances are today reasonably close to balance. EU governments must therefore return these revenues to taxpayers. Shifting away from carbon fuels, though, will result in some existing sources of government revenue virtually disappearing. Gasoline taxes for instance disappear once a shift to electric cars is complete.
EU governments will therefore have to retain some of their new carbon revenue. The European Union will likely also have to earmark a certain share of carbon revenues to projects explicitly mitigating the impact of climate change. Because many of these projects would be regional, a percentage should flow into the EU budget. To secure all member states’ support, some redistribution to help those dependent on carbon production, like Poland, will be called for.
Third, a biting carbon price will render part of the EU’s capital stock obsolete. Shifting away from fossil fuels will destroy certain infrastructure and businesses, creating large groups of economic losers who – much like those suffering losses because of international trade – will need to be compensated through the carbon derived revenue. At the same time, the EU can take advantage of a fortuitous set of macroeconomic circumstances to deliberately destroy parts of its existing capital stock right now.
Interest rates are rock-bottom and European businesses have been net savers of capital in recent years, despite the low interest rates. This would be a perfect time to finance a significant investment-led EU economic growth plan. A high and comprehensive carbon price will create new incentives for private businesses to invest and provide a powerful new economic stimulus to European growth. European governments would face the same investment incentives.
Philippe Legrain, the author of “European Spring: Why Our Economies and Politics Are in a Mess – and How to Put Them Right.” stated that the need to meet climate targets could even unlock the political will to create pan-European “Green Bonds” – issued by say the EU Commission and/or European Investment Bank (EIB) and that the European Central Bank could purchase. This “common debt” would thus be earmarked to solve a commonly agreed European policy problem. The historical analogy for a carbon price hike spurring investment-led growth is the situation Europe faced after World War II.
Fighting had devastated large parts of Europe’s physical infrastructure, and a huge investment drive – partly financed by the U.S. Marshall Plan – was required to rebuild and modernize it. German chancellor Angela Merkel recently said “We want to direct the behavior of people in a certain direction…. The pricing of CO2 is the right way to make clear that all innovations should follow the goal of emitting less CO2” – putting a serious price on carbon will offer rich rewards to those who invest and innovate to help Europe become carbon neutral.
An ambitious EU Green New Deal, including a biting carbon price would, peacefully, achieve much of the same outcome as Europe’s post-war reconstruction, unleashing another long period of high growth, and help solve the climate challenge in the process.
