I’ll be posting from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia this week where I will be covering a meeting of the Africa Commission. What is the Africa Commission, you ask?
In April this year, the Danish government created the Africa Commission as a way to promote economic growth, youth employment and economic development in Africa. The Commissioners include a number of heads of state, UN officials, development experts and other leaders in the field. The meeting is on Thursday and is concurrent with a meeting of African youth leaders, also sponsored by the Danes.
The Danish government was kind enough to give me a travel grant to cover the conference. As they say in Dansk, “Tak!”
Even before I leave, a few words of praise for the Danes. Printed front and center of the e-ticket sent to me by the Danish government is a tabulation of the amount of emitted CO2 for which I’m responsible by way of flying from Washington to Addis. For those keeping score, my footprint equals 2,446 Kg of CO2, round-trip. (Of course, I could have found this out myself by clicking over to the International Civil Aviation Organization’s nifty Carbon Emissions Flight Calculator. But I digress.) It was heartening to see my carbon footprint so prominently displayed on a government-issued plane ticket.
Next stop: Addis!