Climate change, major overriding environmental issue of our time - Yapa

Climate change is the major, overriding environmental issue today, Environment Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said.

Speaking at the seminar 'Emerging Issues on Trade, Climate Change and Food Security: Way Forward for South Asia' at the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (IPS) auditorium yesterday, the minister reiterated the impact climate change is having in South Asia.

The minister addressing the gathering comprising academics, private sector representatives of civil society organisations and the media across the South Asian region said climate change is no longer just one of many environmental and regulatory concerns and is the major, overriding environmental issue of our time.

Minister Yapa highlighting the interdependent relationship climate change has with trade in particular, said "there is a direct link between the effects of trade on the amount of greenhouse gas emissions."

"On the other hand, trade opening could facilitate both the adoption of technologies that reduce the emission-intensity of goods and their production process and the change in the mix of a country's production from energy -intensive sectors towards less energy-intensive sectors, " he said.

As a consequence of a rise in awareness of this relationship, the minister said negotiators are working on the "reduction or, as appropriate, elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers to environmental goods and services" - which would lead to the "improved access to more efficient, diverse and less expensive environmental goods and services on the global market, including goods and services that contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation."

The two day seminar was organised by the IPS, the South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics, and Environment (SAWTEE) and Oxfam Novib. IPS executive director Dr Saman Kelegama delivering the opening address, said although the South Asian region has made very little historical contributions towards global climate change, the region has been and continues to be among the largest victims of its impacts.

As per the available scientific evidence, he said that South Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change impacts in the world.

Former Foreign Secretary and former Secretary General of SAARC, ambassador Nihal Rodrigo, SAWTEE executive chairman Dr Posh Raj Pandey and climate negotiator for the Maldives at the UNFCCC Amjad Abdulla also spoke.