Abebe Tadege is currently a Climate Change Officer at IGAD Climate Prediction and Application Centre (ICPAC) and ICPAC Principal Investigator for the DOWN2EARTH Project. He received his MSc in Applied and Agricultural Meteorology from University of Reading, UK in 1993. Abebe also holds a BSc in Physics from Addis Ababa University and Post Graduate Diploma in Advanced Weather Forecasting from India Meteorological Department. His expertise includes climate change, climate variability, climate services and climate risk assessments. Before joining ICPAC in 2009, Abebe worked for the National Meteorological Agency of Ethiopia assuming different positions including head of Research and Studies Department of NMA. Abebe has over 25 years work experience and initiated and successfully managed several national and regional climate change related projects hosted by national governments and regional institutions including first national communication of Ethiopian to the UNFCCC, National Adaptation Plan of Action (NAPA) and IGAD Regional Climate Change Strategy. He advised the government of Ethiopia on matters relating to climate change including on the ratification of the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol. Abebe also served on the least developed countries expert group (LEG) of the UNFCCC from 2002-2004 and contributed in the writing of the NAPA guidelines.

Abebe’s current areas of interest include improvement of climate services that support decision making for minimizing risks and optimizing resource use/production. Drought risk management under current and future climate is also a research area of interest for him. In DOWN2EARTH, Abebe will lead the IPCAC team on climate forecasts, hydrological modeling, and bolstering regional climate services in the Horn of Africa Drylands.