Climate change impacts can delay development plans – Susil

Sri Lanka has embarked on an ambitious new era of economic development, Environment and Renewable Energy Minister Susil Premajayantha said. He was speaking at the launch of the publication Climate Change Issues in Sri Lanka at the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (IPS) on February 14. The minister said climate change has become a definite challenge to the society, a reality that all must accept.

“The Environment Ministry is spearheading our national effort to face this great challenge. As the Environment Minister, I find this as a good opportunity to interact with a group of stakeholders, whose professional contributions are very much useful for the successful implementation of national policies, programmes, projects and activities undertaken by the ministry,” he said.

Premajayantha said over the next decade, the island will be making major new investments in all sectors to overcome poverty and consolidate its status as a middle income country.

“It has set ambitious national development targets. But climate change impacts, resulting from human-induced global warming, can delay or derail these plans; they can also make existing economic and socio-economic disparities worse,” he said.

“We are already beginning to see some of these impacts taking place -- they will get worse in the coming years and decades. To pursue our development agenda despite these pressures, we need an integrated approach to improve climate resilience in all sectors of economy and society,” the minister said.

He said to safeguard ourselves, we need climate change adaptation -- which involves coping with impacts with knowledge, technology and careful planning.

“Climate change impacts will unfold overtime, and they will be felt by everyone in different ways. No individual, community or sector will be spared. It is a shared crisis. To protect people and economic interests, we have to consider climate change as an emerging threat to all sectors and all human endeavors. In other words, we have to mainstream climate change adaptation in to national planning and development processes,” Premajayantha said.

He said the Environment Ministry, through its Climate Change Secretariat (MOE/CCS), is mandated to provide leadership to climate change adaptation planning and implementation.

“Activities on the ground aimed at climate change adaptation need to be developed and implemented by a range of sector agencies. Therefore, cooperation of those agencies is very much important for the success of the ministry’s efforts.

The country needs to develop a pool of professionals, and leaders, who serve both within government and beyond, to drive Sri Lanka’s initiatives to combat climate change,” he said. “The Environment Ministry will not be able to address all these issues without the support of others.

The help of government, private, NGO/INGO stakeholders is essential, and in this regard, the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka - the well-known IPS - can and should play a major role,” the minister said.

The minister said climate change impacts, which will build up and get worse over the next few decades, can threaten both human settlements and future development programmes.