Climate change adaptation, a must – Minister Susil Premajayantha

Environment and Renewable Energy Minister Susil Premajayantha speaking at the launch of a report entitled ‘Climate Change Issues in Sri Lanka,’ stated that in order to mitigate negative impacts of climate change “we need to mainstream climate change adaptation in to the national planning and development process.”

The report, published by the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (IPS), is a composite of articles that appeared in the Institute’s ground breaking CLIMATEnet blog. The aim of producing such a report was to raise awareness amongst economists and policymakers of the importance of calibrating their calculations for an inevitable shift in the global climate.

Minister Premajayantha reiterated the importance of developing an integrated approach to dealing with climate change and improving the resilience in all sectors, in order to continue withthe development agenda set in place in the post-conflict period. He stated that given the nature of climate change at present, it was “useful to interact with a group of professionals whose contributions are useful for the implementation of various national policies, programmes, projects, and activities. Without the help of your scholarly efforts – this would be a difficult task,” he added, addressing the gathering.

Executive Director of the IPS, Dr. Saman Kelegama, in his opening address stated that while developing countries may not be great contributors to the changing patterns of climate – they are victimised by it.He stated that today, climate change has ceased to be a peripheral issue, with a great deal of evidence supporting the idea that the worst is yet to come.

For instance, according to the International Energy Agency, if Carbon dioxide emissions remain in the levels they are at present global temperatures are expected to rise by six degrees Celsius by 2100. With this rise inevitably on the horizon, there will be a great impact on the economic development of countries such as Sri Lanka that are heavily dependent on sectors such as agriculture, in terms of food shortages and damages to plantation crops such as tea, rubber, and coconut.

Therefore the ‘Climate Change Issues in Sri Lanka’ report will attempt to begin a national dialogue between stakeholders in order to cultivate a better understanding in the academic and policy spheres which would hence, lead to better informed mitigation policies and adaptations measures.

The report covers a number of Sri Lanka related issues beginning with the general theme of inclusive growth and then moving on to how climate change will affect specific areas such as water, agriculture, and theocean, while concluding with essays on the post-Copenhagen, post-Durban, and post-Rio+20 global policy discourse on climate change.

A review of the report was done by former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank, W.A. Wijewardena, who stated that while the report was relatively small with 34 pages, “like all small things,it is a thing of beauty.” He went on to add that the articles were written in simple language, devoid of jargon that would allow its message to be understood by any ordinary layperson.

Wijewardena also commended the IPS on bringing out the report in a time when many people are seeing clear evidence that supports global warming and called it a “timely effort.” He continued to give a detailed review of the articles in the report, and concluded with an entreaty to the minister to attempt to get the “policymakers of the country to take cognizant of the issues relating to climate change in their overall development plans.” Wijewardena concluded by suggesting that the IPS should try and get contributions from a wider range of authors and professionals, who hold differing theoretical viewpoints on climate change and global warming for future publications. Dr. Athula Senarathne, Head of the Environment Economics Policy Unit of the IPS, and Chatura Rodrigo, Research Economist at the IPS, made presentations on the potential offered by the CLIMATEnet blog in terms of networking, communicating, and disseminating information related to climate change impacts in Sri Lanka, its development efforts, and its effect on policy.

The CLIMATEnet blog can be accessed through http://www.ips.lk/climatenet/index.html

The report was co-sponsored by the People’s Bank and the Think Tank Initiative (TTI) of the IDRC, while the launch was supported by HSBC.