Sri Lanka’s Environment Minister, Champika Ranawaka warned the West could become ‘climate change terrorists’ if nations fail to set up an international court of law dealing with environmental issues.

"Developed countries are exploiting developing countries. They adopt delaying tactics by issuing targets to cut carbon emissions at a later date and continue to exhaust the limits set by the Kyoto Protocol for annual carbon emissions," he said.

According to Ranawaka, Sri Lanka’s carbon emissions a year amounts to about 660 kg per person. The US and other industrial nations emit 22,000 kg of carbon per person while the world average is 4,700 kg.

Under the existing framework on climate change the global limit allowed is 2,170 kg per person.

The SAARC region accounts for 3.7 percent of global carbon emissions.

Ranawaka’s concerns are mirrored by many developing countries in the world, fearing they may not have a voice to negotiate a fair deal when the UN Conference on Climate Change takes place in December this year in a bid to formulate a legally biding convention to replace the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012.

Developed countries want developing countries to cut their carbon emissions but developing countries’ needs for energy cannot be ignored and also the need to rely on a degree of industrialization to create jobs and alleviate poverty until such time cleaner technologies are developed and made affordable.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) acknowledges that developed countries are to be held responsible for much of the damage caused by climate change due to their industrialization led economic growth.

Ranawaka says an international court of justice is crucial to keep tabs on the commitments of developed countries to cut carbon emissions and transfer of technology and knowledge to developing countries to pursue sustainable development.

"Developed countries owe an environmental debt and must be made to pay," he said.

Ranawaka also said development will have to undergo a paradigm shift in developing countries so as to avoid mistakes made by industrialized nations.

Last year Sri Lanka set up a Carbon Credit Fund with Rs. 100 million from the government. The private sector was expected to invest an additional Rs. 100 million but progress was slow.

The purpose of the fund was to facilitate various governmental and private sector projects receive Certifications of Emission Reductions (CER) issued by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change so that carbon credits can be earned to be traded with developed countries.

According to a recent study, Sri Lanka has the potential to cut carbon emissions by 6.7 million tonnes a year.

It is estimated that Sri Lanka could generate more than US$ 100 million through carbon credit sales a year.

As at July 2008, about 40 projects, including the Upper Kotmale hydropower plant, were at different stages of obtaining their emission reduction certificates.

These projects have the potential of reducing carbon emissions by about 2.4 million metric tonnes a year, generating approximately US $ 36 million in carbon credit sales.

Sri Lanka has hundreds of statues on conservation but they are far from being implemented.

According to the IUCN, Sri Lanka, with an annual loss of 33,000 ha of forest cover, was one of the eight hottest hotspots in terms of habitat loss in the world.

Sri Lanka is home to rich natural wealth in abundant fauna and flora. Approximately 40 percent of the indigenous inland vertebrates are endemic to the island and 30 percent of the indigenous flowering plant species are endemic too. Change in climatic conditions directly effect the distribution, abundance and life cycles of most species.

According to the 2007 Red List of Threatened Fauna and Flora of Sri Lanka, 72 flowering plant species were extinct. Sixty percent of them had been endemic species.

Twenty one amphibians found their way to the extinct list as well, and these species were all endemic to Sri Lanka’s wet zones.

33 percent of vertebrate species are nationally threatened.