COLOMBO : Environment Minister Naseer Ahamed said here on Monday, Feb 6 that despite the economic crisis Sri Lanka has been keeping the green transition at the top of her action plans.
He was addressing at the High – level Event on Strategies and Actions to Accelerate Sri Lanka’s Green Growth Development Pathway which was attended by Ban Ki-Moon, the President of the Global Green Growth Institute, President Ranil Wickremesinghe, foreign diplomats and public and private sector officials.
Full speech of Minister Ahamed :
”At the very outset, as the Minister of Environment, it is my great honour to extend a very warm welcome to His Excellency the President Ranil Wickremasinghe. Sir, your highest commitment blended with enlightened and strategic leadership is perhaps the best proof of success of Sri Lanka’s green transition and in that context, we are encouraged that you are present with us today.
Today’s gathering is both momentous and historic because of the presence of our most distinguished guest, His Excellency Ban Ki-Moon, the President of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGi) and eighth (8th) Secretary General of the United Nations. Your Excellency, we are very honoured and extremely happy that you are with us today, helping us in the way for an accelerated green transition in Sri Lanka.
Your visit to Sri Lanka is very timely and auspicious particularly in the post COP27 and COP15 global context and we believe it will pave the way in making Sri Lanka’s green growth a practical reality in the foreseeable future.
The existential threat of the climate crises and catastrophic loss of nature make Green Growth across the globe a necessity for collective survival.
Green Growth means fostering economic growth and development, while ensuring that natural assets continue to provide the resources and environmental services on which our well-being relies.
Sri Lanka well contributes to the global agenda of sustainable development. And in this regard, Climate change, sustainable land management, biodiversity conservation, waste management, circular economy, green cities and environment education will be the highest green – investment priorities of the country.
Sri Lanka’s emissions are low comparing other countries. Our strategy now is to maximize renewable energy technology and build resilience in our country, which at the same time delivers on carbon neutrality by 2050. This is our contribution to the achievement of the Paris goals and keeping 1.5 alive.
The long-term, Nature-Positive vision of the nation that was well articulated by His Excellency the President will continue to guide us. That is to take Sri Lanka towards higher middle-income status within few years, and aiming to make Sri Lanka into a developed country by 2048. The hardships we face now can only be borne if they contribute to this more prosperous future. The government of His Excellency Ranil Wickremasinghe is ready to overcome the challenges even in the face of global economic and food crises.
Despite our economic crisis Sri Lanka has been keeping the green transition at the top of our action plans. For instance,
- We have submitted updated Nationally Determined Contributions to the UNFCCC with a more ambitious, quantified and robust assessment of mitigation potential and adaptation measures for the next decade. We focus on building resilience of agriculture, fisheries, livestock health, water biodiversity, coastal & marine tourism, urban planning & human settlement etc.
- Sri Lanka commits to reduce GHG emission by 14.5% from power, transport, waste, forestry & agriculture.
- To minimize the environmental issues, we have prepared climate prosperity plan which seeks not just to eliminate vulnerability of climate change but to use our climate targets as the investment to help drive growth across a more sustainable economy.
To reach this, we need rapid and sustained economic growth, and the challenge is how to achieve that in a way that is compatible with our climate and other environmental targets. The solution to all this lies in the provision of external funding in a sustained manner, thereby facilitating accelerated transition towards Blue & Green Economy. We would like GGGi and other like-minded development partners to consider Sri Lanka as an opportunity where you have the possibility to mould it into a unique development model based on its combined effects of climate, biodiversity and debt vulnerabilities. The concept of ‘loss & damage’ funding as negotiated by developing countries on a multilateral basis was also based on similar principles which make it more acceptable in a country-level bi-lateral context.
Alternatively, GGGI can play an instrumental role in promoting swaps of debt for investments through which large-scale creative debt restructuring can be implemented to achieve climate objectives and Sustainable Development Goals for Sri Lanka and other debt-distressed countries in the Global South.
I personally believe that these are the most desirable and pragmatic forms of support Sri Lanka would require given its current state of cumulative vulnerability, which I just referred to, a while ago.
Your Excellency, Ban Ki-Moon!
I am sure you would agree with me when I say that Sri Lanka has been an active member of GGGi given the short period we have been in the membership.
- Sri Lanka first became an official member of GGGi in 2019.
- Sri Lanka currently holds the office of the vice president of the assembly and vice chair of the council from 2022.
- We have been implementing the GCF-National Adaptation Planning (NAP) Readiness Support Program with the support of GGGi, facilitating adoption of sustainable public transport services, for low carbon city development
Sri Lanka now look forward to a more ambitious phase of partnership with GGGi. The overall objective of this phase is to strengthen previous and complement existing fora on the transformation of Sri Lanka’s development to a green growth model. Towards this we are bringing together all the key stakeholder groups so that their expert opinions will be duly heard and recognised. They will accordingly contribute to the dialogue showcasing strategies and key actions required to enable the acceleration of Sri Lanka’s green development agenda, taking on board an integrated, holistic, and inclusive approach.
Obviously, the Government cannot achieve this alone. We have brought all the key stakeholders together to help us move forward. We are determined to work together to achieve priority actions for green growth in Sri Lanka.
As the GoSL, we are creating the enabling environment, with the correct policies and strategies in place to support the green growth agenda.
On the other hand, we have recognized the role of the private sector here – we are bringing the private sector on board – supporting our transition to cleaner – renewable energy, promoting more sustainable transport systems and supporting with innovative technologies in the agriculture sector.
Thereby, I am happy to announce that Sri Lanka will be signing the host country agreement on 07th February 2023 to further strengthen Sri Lanka’s green growth development.”
