What to expect – Sri Lanka at COP27

The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, commonly known as the Conference of the Parties of UNFCC, or COP27, is being held from 6 November until 18 November in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, with the participation of more than 100 heads of state. The conference has been held annually since the first UN climate agreement in 1992. Governments around the world use this platform to agree on policies for limiting global temperature rises and minimizing climate change impacts.

Explained | All you need to know about ‘COP27’

The Sri Lankan delegation for COP27 includes President Ranil Wickremesinghe, accompanied by the Minister of Environment, – Mr Naseer Ahamed, Senior Advisor to the President on Climate Change – Mr Ruwan Wijewardene & President’s International Affairs Director Dinouk Colambage.

What’s included in the updated National Determined Contribution (NDCs)

The key highlights included in the updated Sri Lankan NDC mentions that Sri Lanka is highly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change. The country focuses on building the resilience of Agriculture, Fisheries, Livestock, Health, Water, Biodiversity, Coastal and Marine, Tourism, Urban Planning and Human Settlement sectors.

Sri Lanka’s per capita greenhouse gas emission in 2010 was 1.02 tons, and its global cumulative contribution in 2019 was 0.03%. Despite this low carbon footprint and highly vulnerable status, Sri Lanka commits to increasing 32% forest cover by 2030 and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 14.5% from 2021 to 2030 from Power (electricity generation), Transport, Industry, Waste, Forestry, and Agriculture.

To realise this ambitious target, Sri Lanka further commits;

            To achieve 70% renewable energy in electricity generation by 2030

            To achieve Carbon Neutrality by 2050 in electricity generation

            No capacity addition of Coal power plants

In addition, Sri Lanka has already launched the following major initiatives;

Adopting ‘Colombo Declaration on Sustainable Nitrogen Management’ with an ambition to halve nitrogen waste by 2030

            Banning agrochemicals and chemical fertilisers

            Promoting organic fertiliser and farming

           Banning single-use plastics

           Promoting E-mobility

           Promoting circular economy

Sri Lanka expects to achieve its Carbon Neutrality by 2050

Climate Financing measures for developing countries, where does Sri Lanka stand?

Climate finance refers to local, national or transnational financing drawn from public, private and alternative sources of funding that seek to support mitigation and adaptation actions that will address climate. Before COP27, on October 14^th, 2022, Scotland and Denmark announced introducing climate financing measures for developing countries. Denmark promised 100 million Danish crowns (€13.4 million) to developing nations affected by climate change. Accordingly, it became the first country to offer “loss and damage” compensation for those in the most climate-vulnerable regions of the world. Read more here Archived.

Mr Ruwan Wijewardene, Senior Advisor to the Sri Lankan President on Climate Change, stated, “At a time when there is such a crisis in the country, it becomes difficult to manage climate change issues. In particular, the need to depend on local resources is necessary to secure our future,” at the opening session of the “Climate Finance” conference held in Bangkok, Thailand this year.

According to the Global Climate Risk Index, 2021, people worldwide face the reality of climate change in many parts of the world. This manifests in increased volatility of extreme weather events. Between 2000 and 2019, over 475 000 people lost their lives worldwide, and losses of 2.56 trillion5 USD (in PPP) were incurred directly from more than 11 000 extreme weather events.

Sri Lanka was ranked 6^th in 2018 among the ten most affected countries due to Climate Change. Climate change impacts in Sri Lanka include an increasing annual economic loss of 380mn USD. Sri Lanka also ranked 2^nd in the Global Climate Risk Index in 2017. Land degradation through saltwater intrusion adds to the vulnerable food security in the country. Hence, Sri Lanka is in dire need of Climate Financing. Read more here Archived.

However, Sri Lanka has many barriers to achieving this, mainly due to inadequate domestic funding for climate actions, yet it is essential to strategise the way forward. This year, a case study in Sri Lanka highlights climate financing barriers and strategies.

Sri Lanka’s ban on agrochemicals and chemical Fertilizer

The overnight ban on synthetic fertiliser and pesticide imports, coupled with the economic crisis, has left Sri Lanka in Food Crisis, which needs immediate action to overcome. Sri Lanka banned agrochemicals and chemical fertilisers as an initiative taken up by the NDC last year.

According to one estimate, the former president’s agrochemical ban was poised to save Sri Lanka the $400 million it was spending yearly on synthetic fertiliser, money it could use toward increasing imports of other goods.

However, the agrochemical ban caused rice production to drop 20% in the six months after it was implemented, causing a country that had been self-sufficient in rice production to spend $450 million on rice imports, much more than the $400 million that would’ve been saved by banning fertiliser imports. Tea production, the main cash crop of Sri Lanka and the biggest expo fell by 18%. The government has had to spend hundreds of millions on subsidies and compensation to farmers e for the loss of productivity.

The current President, Ranil Wickremasinghe stated that the Government is initiating a food security program through which they can provide fertiliser for the maha season. “Then, in 2023, we can be self-sufficient in rice and get the real economy functioning as far as agriculture is concerned,” Wickremesinghe said, speaking at an international Panel Discussion on Preventing Hunger and Famine in July.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe proposed the establishment of an International University on Climate Change in Sri Lanka. The President’s Media Division (PMD) said the proposal was made during a meeting with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) President in Manila, Philippines. With the hopes of getting the required funds from ADB, Sri Lanka can look forward to the future developments of this statement by the president. You can find the news article here Archived.

Can Renewable energy answer the current energy crisis in Sri Lanka?

According to the NDC, Sri Lanka hopes to achieve 70% renewable energy in electricity generation by 2030. Amid an energy crisis, people have felt the urgent need for alternative energy sources. In addition, the NDC mentions the country’s hope of not adding any capacity to coal power.

Sri Lanka generated renewable energy mainly from hydro, wind, solar, and biogas. This year, a 10MW ground-mounted solar power plant was declared open in Vavunativu, Batticaloa. It is co-owned by several private organisations, namely Vidullanka PLC, Wind Force (Pvt) Ltd. and HI ENERGY Services. A total of 20GWh is expected to be added to the national grid annually from this power plant. The construction of this 10MW ground-mounted solar power plant began in September 2021. The Solar Universe plant will consist of plots of land allocated to local farmers who may tend to the crops they grow and subsequently sell their harvests, paving the way for an additional source of income for them. After considering the climate and soil profile in the area, crops such as peanuts, green chillies, beans, turnips and watermelons are already being grown there. Watch the opening of the Solar Universe Plant here Archived.

In contrast, the support for renewable energy initiatives by the CEB can improve. After the recent incident where Sri Lanka’s renewable energy sector warned the state-run Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) over non-payment of arrears. According to data from the Federation of renewable energy (FRED), the CEB had ten months’ worth of arrears totalling 35.18 billion rupees dating back to October 2021. Although in June, the government had promised to pay back the arrears in instalments of 100 million rupees per day after a few payments, the industry said it had not received anything so far.

In addition, Roshan Siriwardana, a spokesperson for FRED, stated that “Talks with the CEB were not so favourable on their end because the CEB is looking to preserve finances for coal procurement, and we are most likely to go for a court case to get the money back,”

Incidents like these leave citizens questioning the practicality of the government’s set targets in the NDC to achieve clean energy during the set period.

Does Sri Lanka have policies needed for Climate Action?

The NDC’s unconditional and conditional policy response is mentioned to develop within 2021-2030. Accordingly, unconditional policy responses are described as those actions identified in national plans and programs, prioritised for domestic investments (public and private), which can be implemented with domestic capacity. Conditional policy responses require external support, including financing, technology transfer, and capacity building. According to the document, the constraint on conditional NDCs is mainly the lack of market readiness (economic viability) and underdeveloped technology.  Additionally, conditional NDCs would form the majority of the actions described in the following sectors: power, transport, industry, waste, forestry, agriculture & livestock- towards low-carbon pathways.

The National Climate Change Policy of Sri Lanka contains a vision, mission, goal and a set of guiding principles followed by broad policy statements under Vulnerability, Adaptation, Mitigation, Sustainable Consumption and Production, Knowledge Management and General Statements. Collaborative action at all levels is necessary to transform this policy into a meaningful set of actions to meet the challenges of climate change.

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