The Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (IPS) launched a publication on climate change titled ‘Mainstreaming Climate Change for Sustainable Development: Towards a National Agenda for Action’ at the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources.

IPS chairman Prof Buddhadasa Hewavitharana handed over the report to Environment and Natural Resources Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka before his departure to the Copenhagen summit on climate change.

The publication presents findings of a policy analysis based on information from a recently held national workshop, discussions with experts and review of various sources of secondary information.

The study highlights that Sri Lanka, being a tropical island located in a disaster prone region, is highly vulnerable to climate change in terms of physical as well as socio-economic impacts. It presents a review of existing information on climate change in Sri Lanka and effects of global warming on local climate. Accordingly, changes in air temperature, rainfall patterns, extreme events, sea level rise and increased concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere are among the major climate effects that can create impacts over different economic sectors and regions.

The island is likely to face impacts in six major areas of critical importance - agriculture and irrigation, coastal zone, forests and natural eco-systems, human settlements and infrastructure, human health, and on energy and industry. The report outlines the impacts on these areas highlighting the relationship between the respective climate effects and their impacts.

The information gathered from different sources indicates that four major gaps, namely, lack of agenda and listing of priorities, information gap, coordination gap and, resource mobilization gap act as constraints in formulating effective actions against climate change impacts. While the lack of information, poor coordination and limited resource availability each have their own drawbacks, the lack of a comprehensive agenda overrides them all. 

Climate change is a complex challenge. The IPS study stresses the necessity of a ‘National Agenda’ to face this complex challenge. The proposed national agenda covers – a national vision on climate change, a national policy on climate change, a strategic action plan (national strategy), a coordinating mechanism, a climate change information system, and a mechanism for resource mobilization.

Such an agenda should be aimed at mainstreaming climate change issues within the overall national effort towards sustainable development. Success of a national agenda would largely be determined by the effectiveness of measures taken to overcome the major gaps highlighted in the report.

The report was authored by Athula Senaratne, Nethmini Perera and Kanchana Wickramasinghe, researchers attached to the Environmental Economics Policy Unit of the IPS.