‘SL, most carbon efficient country in GDP terms’
Sandasen MARASINGHE
Power and Energy Minister Patali Chamipka Ranawaka yesterday said Sri
Lanka is the most carbon efficient country in GDP terms as the amount of
Carbon produced here is very much less in every respect.
Minister Chamipka Ranawaka |
He made this observation making the keynote address as the Chief
Guest at the Clean and Green Energy International Conference at the
Grand Ballroom, Galadari Hotel, Colombo. The event was organized by the
Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).
He said he was happy to say that when compared with countries where
the per - capita income is more than US$ 2,000, we are the lowest Carbon
Emitting country in the world to produce 1US$ per capita in real terms.
“Therefore, we must be proud that we are the most carbon efficient
country in GDP terms” the minister said.
The minister further said though in the global context, it is an
entirely different story. Putting it bluntly, he said we are a
civilization sitting on a bubble of fossil fuel, and that bubble is
definitely going to burst in the near future.
He also said the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
established in 1988 by the UN has identified the Carbon Budget for the
whole century to avoid the disastrous consequences of the environmental
calamity which might lead to the Sixth Great Extinction of the living
species of the planet.
But as per the recent data available, at the current rates the Carbon
Budget will be exhausted by 2030, oil reserves by 2040, gas reserves by
2042 and coal reserves by 2062, which means Doomsday is coming very
soon.
Minister Ranawaka further said governments alone cannot find
solutions for them. As policy makers, scientists and engineers we must
educate our people on the importance of clean and green energy not for
our sake, but, also for the sake of future generations to come, as we as
human beings have nowhere else to go.
“Therefore, we all must take urgent and meaningful action to quickly
reduce anthropogenic carbon emissions to zero” minister said.
“Therefore, I consider it is a timely and proactive decision for your
institution to come up with an idea of having an international
conference to deliberate on clean and green energy”.
He added it is well known, that Sri Lanka has over 4,000 MW of
potential wind power mostly concentrated on the North-West coastal belt.
But it is ironical that we can only tap about 260 to 650 MW of this
potential energy till 2020 due to technical constraints.
“If we are to face this problem, we must focus on the evaluation of
data related to the location and amount to overcome the intermittent
problem, development of machines on problems related to harmonics, study
and analyze the Demand Side Management. |