Ethiopian Prime Minister has stressed that green growth is of utmost importance to Africa due to its abundant renewable energy sources.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said, since African economies are largely agrarian-based, any action on green growth must first target the agriculture sector.
Mr Zenawi believes embarking on such a green path of agricultural development is the only way Africa can sustain a meaningful agricultural sector.
The Ethiopian leader made these remarks at the opening ceremony of the African Economic Conference on Tuesday 25th October in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The four-day conference is an annual event organised by ECA, in collaboration with the African Development Bank and the United Nations Development Programme.
Meles Zenawi stated that structural transformation can only take place with a massive increase in the production of energy in Africa.
He revealed that his country Ethiopia had already embarked on such a programme that will increase energy generation five-fold in the next five years.
He defined green economy as mechanism to improving economic and social wellbeing while ensuring that production processes and consumption patterns do not further damage the environment.
“It is now evident to all concerned that mankind needs to move from old resource-intense methods of growth in which progress has been at the expense of the environment to one in which productivity is boosted by using and managing natural resources more efficiently and effectively,” he said.
The Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia further noted that, “The second reason why we can and should embark on Green development as part of our structural economic transformation is because we are highly endowed with green and renewable source of energy.
We in Africa have enormous untapped resources to generate power from renewable resources. We have huge hydro and wind power potentials and significant one in Geo-thermal energy and with the greening of our agriculture we will have enormous potentials for modern bio-energy development.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi who leads the coordination of African Heads of States in Climate Change talks and negotiations revealed the third reason as to why we have to create for green economy is to go with the global technological trend.  
He said it is true that International negotiations on Climate change have been stuck in quagmire and are unlikely to get out of it anytime sooner, but this has not stopped those countries and companies that have the foresight and the resources from the massive and concerted investment in Green technologies.
“The future of the world is green and when we plan for our future we must do so on the basis of green technologies,” he disclosed noting that structural economic transformation and green development in Africa not only go together but are virtually inseparable.
As we embark on green development, Meles Zenawi said we will be doing humanity as a whole and those who created the problem in particular an enormous service. It would be therefore natural and fair that we are compensated not only for the damages to our economies caused by the global warming but also for the services we render in mitigating it, he posited. We have forcefully argued our case in the past and I am sure we will do so in the future, he said.