One El of a climate problem for Ethiopia

AT FIRST glance Addis Ababa looks like a city in a mad rush somewhere. Skeletal cranes reach into the sky, invoking memories of the clueless Celtic Tiger, writes Michael Clifford.

Everywhere you look, there are concrete frames, newly poured, nearly finished. The air is grey with the fumes of clogged, erratic traffic. The streets are alive with people walking furiously, as if they are all part of a campaign to march the Ethiopian economy into double digit growth.

So it looked last week when Mary Robinson landed in the city with the chiefs executive from Concern, Goal, and Trócaire. Robinson is the UN’s special envoy on climate change.