In Ethiopia, many hope that 2017 will be the year of environmental awakening. The country had suffered substantially because of the El Niño phenomenon in 2016. Major droughts have also occurred in the eastern part of the country. The occurrence of these devastating droughts is not by accident.   Man-made climate change fuelled by the release of uncontrolled greenhouse gases has caused the devastations we see in developing countries like Ethiopia.

The government and a number of NGOs working on environmental protection in Ethiopia have pledged to put a substantial amount of funds to raise environmental awareness among youth. This gives a lot of environmental activists? hope that 2017 will be a year of great accomplishment in environmental protection.

As the 17^th Eco-generation regional Ambassador to Ethiopia, I will work closely with a number of NGOs in my remaining term to further reinforce the campaign for environmental protection.