Challenges that loom over climate change

Statement made by Patali Champika Ranawaka MP, Minister of Environment and Natural Resources at SAARC Ministerial Meeting on Climate Change on July 3, 2008, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Climate change is considered as the fundamental human development challenge that looms above the global community. The poorest countries are the most vulnerable to threats posed by climate change impacts. Some of the most vulnerable countries to climate change are in the SAARC region.

Some SAARC member countries like my own have a highly populated coastline with extremely high productivity. But the tragedy is that these coastlines are highly susceptible to sea level rise.

On the other hand, some member countries located in the mountainous regions are threatened by melting of glaciers, which ultimately threaten freshwater resources almost in the entirety of the SAARC region.

Global average

The SAARC region while harbours nearly the 1/6th of the global population, it contributes only 3.7 per cent to the total global CO2 emissions which equals to around 1330 million tons per year. According to the available data for 2007, the per capita tCO2 in the SAARC countries range from 0.25-1.3, whereas the global average is 4.22.tCO2.

Several studies in this regard suggest that to some extent, the so called rich countries have achieved their economic supremacy at the expense of poor countries like ours. The high living standards of the peoples in the West have been maintained by drawing from the ecological resources of the developing countries.

This phenomenon of “environmental debt” by the developed countries to the developing countries has been largely unrecognised or has not been researched well up to now.

In keeping with this year’s UN World Environment Day theme aimed at combating global warming through change of habits, the Government of Sri Lanka has adopted a National Charter on Environmental Protection.

Conserving the environment

This Charter binds all citizens of the country to a set of guidelines towards protecting and conserving the environment through individual actions.

Likewise, I would like to propose to this August assembly that we consider adopting a SAARC Regional Charter on Climate Change to address regional climate change related issues through a regional cohesive approach. This Regional Charter could include the following components.

Firstly, recognition of adaptation to Climate Change as a regional priority. We believe that adaptation should be the way forward for our region to counter climate change impacts. The adaptation strategies need to be prepared incorporating our traditional and indigenous knowledge and value systems.

These traditional practices should be enhanced with necessary technology transfer and capacity building initiatives. We should initiate a process to transfer such knowledge and practices within the region for the common benefit of the peoples of this region.

Technology transfer within the region for vulnerability assessments and adaptation technologies is also another important aspect in this regard.

Secondly, recognition of the need for early implementation of the Adaptation Fund under the UNFCCC. The implementation procedure for the Adaptation Fund was established at the COP 13, at Bali, Indonesia. However, the contribution to the Fund is only through a 2 per cent contribution from Clean Development Mechanism proceeds.

Our belief is that the developed nations have a moral obligation to contribute to the Fund and we propose that contributions from other two Kyoto Mechanisms - Joint Implementation and Emission Trading - should also be channelled to the Fund.

Exploring the possibilities

Thirdly, pursuing a regional position on “Environmental Debt Concept”. Sri Lanka also proposes to establish a command regional position and criterion to assess the cost either in terms of monetary values or as an index to measure past accumulated “Environmental Debt” owed by the developed countries to the SAARC countries.

This index could be used to estimate past environmental impacts of development activities of developed nations that have already caused natural resource depletion and environmental degradation in terms of an environmental debt to future generations, of both developing and developed countries.

In the light of this, it is necessary to explore the possibilities of setting off the existing financial debts against “environmental debts”.

Fourthly, recognition of the need for a comprehensive Human Development Index. The Human Development Index (HDI) as it is presently being calculated reflects an average of three independent indices which do not take into consideration the ecological or environmental concerns, poverty and climate change related issues.

The new index may be termed Sustainable Human Development Index (SHDI). We propose that we start preparing this index within SAARC region, in order to take forward this concept.

The next important component of this Charter is the Establishment of a SAARC Carbon Cartel.

Recognise

We need to recognise that the SAARC countries are entitled to a large amount of Carbon stocks by way of an environmental capital, which have been used by developed countries, infringing the rights of the present and future generations of our countries.

These Carbon stocks together with Carbon credits from CDM process can be pooled together to form a Carbon Cartel similar to the rice cartel proposed by Thailand or to the OPEC of oil producing countries. Such a mechanism will allow us to price our Carbon stocks/ credits in a manner that will benefit the developmental activities of our countries.

Another important aspect would be to recognise the need for promoting energy generation through renewable energy sources. It has been now proved beyond doubt that, GHG emissions from fossil fuel burning has contributed to global warming and related climate change impacts.

We should promote renewable energy sources such as wind power, solar power, and biomass energy in order that we can give an example to the rest of the world on how to promote such practices.

Sri Lanka has already established a Sustainable Energy Authority to promote such practices. The Government has already adopted that 10% of the new power generations should come from renewable energy sources. We have also declared gliricidia as a plantation crop to promote dendro power and to promote community forestry.

At the national level, we have recognised the need to incorporate climate change concerns into national programs. The Government through the Ministry of Environment & Natural Resources has undertaken a number of national initiatives to address climate change related issues.

These are some building blocks for a SAARC Regional Charter on Climate Change.