Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)

EXECUTIVE SECRETARY'S MESSAGE

"This year marks the beginning of the Decade of Action to deliver on the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We need to react, and urgently. And we must recognize that responses framed within our existing comfort zone will fail to address the scale of transformation we need.”

Antonio Pedro, Executive Secretary a.i.

MISSION

ECA’s Mission is to deliver ideas and actions for an empowered and transformed Africa; informed by the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063.

FIELD OFFICES

The Economic Commission for Africa is composed of a headquarter in Addis Abeba, as well as 5 sub-regional offices (SRO) and a training institute (IDEP):

SRO North Africa - Rabat, Morocco
SRO West Africa Niamey - Niamey, Niger
SRO Central Africa - Yaounde, Cameroon
SRO East Africa - Kigali, Rwanda
IDEP Dakar - Dakar, Senegal
SRO South Africa - Lusaka, Zambia

ALIGNMENT WITH THE STRATEGY FOR SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT IN THE UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM, 2020–2030

ECA has been improving its environmental performance since 2008, when it participated in the first Greening the Blue Report. Following the endorsement of the Strategy for Sustainability Management in the United Nations System 2020-2030 Phase 1 in 2019, ECA decided to dedicate resource to this endeavour by recruiting a Environmental Affair Officer in 2020.

In 2021 ECA formally decided to implement an Environmental Management System, leading to the adoption of its Environmental Action Plan, which declines objectives and targets internally in the five environmental impact areas, as well as in the six management functions.

Progress is monitored regularly through the Greening the Blue Report, as well as internal reporting to Senior Leadership.

ECA plans to achieve EMS ISO 14001:2015 certification before 2025.

EMISSIONS REDUCTION

ECA’s greenhouse gas emissions calculations are based on the methodology developed by the Sustainable United Nations. It considers the emissions due to facilities (purchase of electricity, stationary combustion due to back-up generators, refrigerants for air-conditioning…) and the emissions due to travel (ground and air travel).

The electricity in Ethiopia is 96% hydroelectric and therefore almost carbon free. In addition, the mild temperatures reduce substantially the need for heating and cooling. However in Sub-Regional Offices energy mix can be less favourable.

The facilities emissions are then related to back-up diesel generators, due to the unstable electricity supply, as well as the use of refrigerants for cooling, and diesel boilers for heating. Efforts have been made, and are ongoing, in order to develop renewables on site, and to reduce all the energy consumptions on site. Major renovations are expected to improve the overall buildings performance.

Commercial Air Travel remains consistently the biggest emitter, at around 90% each year. Efforts are underway to reduce air travel without impacting mandate delivery, as have been best exemplified by the intensive use of remote meetings during the Covid-19 pandemic.

A combination of travel reduction and improvement of air travel technology will enable ECA to its climate targets.

It is envisioned that newer ways of working remotely, combining hybrid on-site work, and remote conferencing, will be part of the solutions to ensure that ECA greenhouse gas do not return to pre-Covid levels.

In 2022, ECA emitted 3,461 tC0₂eq, an important increase from 2021. This indicate that essential travel to deliver on ECA’s mandate has resumed.

EMS and REDUCTION EFFORTS

ECA is implementing an Environmental Management System based on the ISO 14001 since 2021. Mainstreaming environmental sustainability in all Divisions ensures a systematic approach to reduction efforts.

The environmental impacts especially pertinent for ECA are waste, energy, greenhouse gas, travel and events, and water use.

Some emissions reductions projects are highlighted below:

Optimizing use of energy and water by implementing automated irrigation project for the Secretariat’s 56,647 square meter park. The project included upgrading the conventional hose-and-tap irrigation system to pop-up sprinklers, drip irrigation and a weather monitoring system, incorporated with variable-frequency drive (VFD) motors. Groundwater is used for irrigation.
Solar water heaters have been installed to provide hot water to two kitchens and bathrooms. ECA also uses solar lighting pipes or “light tubes” in selected areas of our facilities (these devices capture sunlight and convey it to the rooms below).
Ensuring that ECA does not damage the environment by recycling ozone-depleting refrigerants with a device that removes such substances from refrigerators and HVAC systems requiring maintenance. The gas is then pumped back into the appliance rather than being released into the atmosphere.
Use of Building Automation and Control System (BACS) to manage lighting energy for the 42,184 square metre Conference Centre. This is supplemented by coordinating with the security team to ensure that lights are switched off manually in unoccupied buildings and in off working hours.

ECA is currently installing a Field Remote Infrastructure Monitoring system to monitor real time critical environmental systems.

6 FMS Electrical vehicles/carts were purchased over the past 4 years for compound use only and SSS has 5 Electric Carts in operation. Although they represent 25% of all the ECA vehicles, these vehicles are no licenced in the city. The Transportation Section purchased two hybrid vehicles in 2022.
One charging station for Electric Vehicles is installed as a pilot, and ECA is procuring more charging stations.

Each year, as part of the Greening the Blue Report on Environmental Governance, each participating UN entity’s progress on the development of an Environmental Management System (EMS) is evaluated according to the UN system’s EMS criteria (these criteria are available on the Methodology webpage). Upon this evaluation the entity is then rated Exceeds, Meets, Approaches, or No response. For the 2022 reporting year, ECA’s progress on the EMS is rated as: Approaches.

ENVIRONMENTAL & SOCIAL SAFEGUARDS AND STANDARDS IN POLICIES, PROJECTS AND PROGRAMMES

For the 2022 reporting year, ECA’s status of implementing environmental and social safeguards and standards in their policies, projects and programmes is: No.

ENVIRONMENTAL TRAINING FOR PERSONNEL

ECA has made environmental induction mandatory for all personnel. All new staff follow an induction online.

Existing staff are also provided with environmental induction.

For the 2022 reporting year, ECA’s status on providing training on environmental sustainability is Yes, and it is mandatory for staff only.

ENVIRONMENTAL INVENTORY APPROACH

ECA inventory covers the full scope of the organization (HQ in Addis Ababa + 5 Sub-Regional Offices + IDEP) and the full scope of the SUN Inventory:

- Waste (municipal, construction, hazardous)

- Water (municipal, groundwater)

- Greenhouse Gas (facilities, operations)

- Environmental Management System

The data for some regional inventory is not complete and proxy calculations were used.

The compound in Addis Abeba hosts 22 other UN Entities/Agencies and 20 Commercial/Retail tenants. Environmental Inventory due to facilities are apportioned to ECA and hosted entities based on headcount.

OFFSETTING

ECA is climate neutral since 2015, offsetting its greenhouse gas emissions by purchasing carbon credits. Since 2020, carbon credits are centrally purchased by the UN Secretariat, through the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat.

GREENHOUSE GAS INVENTORY

The greenhouse gas inventory is based on the following:

Duty Air Travel (fuel consumption of aircrafts in economy and business class)
Duty Road Travel (fuel consumption of UN vehicles)
Electricity consumption from the grid (hydroelectricity – 100% renewable)
Fuel consumption of the back-up diesel generators
Refrigerants consumption

The greenhouse gas emissions at ECA is mainly linked to Air Travel (around 90% each year). Indeed, the great climate of Addis does not require heavy building heating or cooling. In addition, the electricity provided to ECA is hydroelectricity, and therefore has a low climate impact.

WASTE MANAGEMENT

ECA has set up waste recycling stations throughout its compound and is encouraging its staff and visitors to participate in waste reduction and waste sorting efforts. A central waste sorting area was built in 2014 to store and sort waste before they are evacuated from the site.

Waste generated at ECA can be municipal solid waste from its offices, its catering outlets, its garden or other activities such as building maintenance. Upgrading of facilities through construction and demolition projects can significantly change the amount of waste generated from one year to the other. At the moment, ECA is undertaking major renovation projects of its infrastructure. Hazardous waste generated at ECA are minimal and include small quantities of medical waste (incinerated) or small quantities of construction waste (asbestos). All waste are disposed of using international standards.

Waste production is systematically measured at ECA. However, there are gaps in waste monitoring. For instance waste contractor mix sorted waste between different clients, and items removed from the inventory for reuse, recycling or disposal are not always measured. Waste which cannot be reused or recycled is sent to the Reppie incinerator, which is equipped with a waste to electricity recovery system.

There are challenges due to the local Ethiopian context, and the availability of high standard waste management services in the local market.

In 2022 ECA started a pilot project for composting organic waste and the project has kept expanding.

In 2023, ECA installed a double-chamber, environmentally-friendly incinerator for the safe disposal of medical waste.

WATER AND WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT

ECA water use is based on its metered consumption of municipal water, and the metered consumption of water from a borehole, which is used exclusively for irrigation or for firefighting. 

ECA is committed to reduce is water consumption through building efficiencies, sustainable landscaping and awareness raising on consumption behaviours.

Construction works at ECA can significantly alter water consumption patterns.

The wastewater of ECA is managed through two networks

Stormwater network
Domestic wastewater network

The domestic wastewater (sewage from toilets) is treated by the municipal wastewater treatment plant.

OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL MEASURES

ECA and the Government of Ethiopia launched the Decade of Action to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals.

They signed an agreement to kick-off a four-year, 3.6 million project, on nature-based solutions for water resources infrastructure and community resilience in Ethiopia.

ECA is committed to reduce the environmental impact of conferencing. This was translated in the “roll out the green carpet initiative” for conference participants. Conferences are switching from paper-based to smart paper (online documentation), plastic bottles have been removed from conferences, and recycling stations have been set up close to conferences.

ECA has prepared a complete City and Country code, legislation and compliance matrix that is used to complement the UN policies on all sustainability matters so that ECA continues to meet and exceed Host Country legislation.

NEXT STEPS

ECA is planning to improve its Environmental Management System until it reaches a “Meets” rating, paving the way for ISO 14001:2015 certification.

ECA is also planning to have all its staff trained on environmental awareness by 2023.

The implementation of ECA Environmental Action Plan will significantly improve ECA performance over the coming years.

ADDITIONAL LINKS

Reducing the carbon footprint of ECA through electro-mobility - 28 Oct 2021

ECA, Government of Ethiopia launch Decade of Action with tree planting, green jobs, livelihoods and health at the center

ECA supports #GreenLegacy tree planting in Ethiopia

ECA supports of Ethiopia's #GreenLegacy programme (part 2)

ECA - Technology, climate change and natural resource management