Gaia maintains a strong position in the rapidly growing Ethiopian energy and sustainability business. The news we read from the country are oftentimes biased to negative topics which easily blind ourselves from the huge and fast development happening now. Gaia has now been in the country for years and has witnessed the positive impact of well-placed policies, such as the Climate Resilient Green Growth strategy which demonstrates Ethiopia’s commitment to bypass the conventional approach of economic development and to create a green economy where economic development goals are met in a sustainable way.
Gaia’s work in Ethiopia focused on sustainable energy solutions, ranging from developing business models for microfinance institutions to enabling financing for clean technologies in rural communities, to support highly advanced smart grid manufacturing company on their internationalization path. The microfinance project has been awarded by International Center for Climate Governance to receive first prize in the Best Climate Practice of 2016 competition.
The energy sector particularly is growing at an amazing speed on both grid connected and rural off-grid areas. Ethiopia has doubled its grid connected capacity only in few years from solely renewable sources. With over 75% of the country of 100 million people not connected to the national grid and only a fraction having off-grid electricity available, Ethiopia’s electrification needs are huge. While there is a plan to increase energy access by more than 20% annually, Ethiopia has set a target of cutting its carbon emissions by more than a half within the next decade, one of the most ambitious national goals across the world.
In Ethiopia Gaia is represented by Mika Turpeinen, the founder of Swan Management Plc, an Ethiopian registered private consulting company focusing on complex energy and environmental projects and policy development. Mika has a 20 years’ experience from the energy field; with more than half from developing countries. The mission of Gaia’s continued partnership with Mika and the Swan Management Plc is to integrate private projects and development activities of donor countries to sustainable and climate-friendly thinking, thus, contributing to the ambitious mission of Ethiopian government to become completely carbon neutral by 2025.
More information
- Paula Tommila, Business manager, +358 40 538 4813, Gaia Consulting Oy, firstname.surname@gaia.fi
- Pasi Rinne, Chairman of the board, +358 400 464 127, Gaia Consulting Oy, firstname.surname@gaia.fi
