Durban Climate Change Conference:

SL urges to implement Kyoto Protocol

Waruna PADMASIRI

Sri Lanka expressed disappointment at the inability of the global community to meet their obligations under the Kyoto Protocol at the recently concluded Climate Change Conference held in Durban, Environmental Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said.

Sri Lanka presented four main points at the conference held in Durban, South Africa. Sri Lanka described the vulnerabilities faced by the country as a developing island nation due to the effects of climate change. He also stated that developed countries must take adequate responsibility for the damage caused to the environment by those countries historically.

The minister set out Sri Lanka's actions to mitigate climate change including the planting of millions of trees under the Deyata Sevana programme in 2010 and 2011.

Explaining the difficulty in reaching an agreement, Minister Yapa said various differing stances taken by different countries and the purely self- serving and unprincipled stance of a number of wealthy, developed nations were extremely saddening.

The Canadian delegation stated that they will withdraw from the Kyoto protocol at the conference.

The other members of the Sri Lankan delegation to the conference included Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Amaraweera, Power and Energy Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka, the ministerial secretaries, officers in charge of the subject in the ministries, the secretary of the Central Environmental Authority, Chief Ministers for the Southern Province and the Central Province and the ministerial Secretaries.