Presidential Task Force to transform Sri Lanka into green-socio economy

On Aug 11, 2021

The Environment Ministry, clarifying the Special report issued by the United Nations Secretary General on Climate Change and Global Warming, noted that Sri Lankan Government on the instructions of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has prepared a programme to contribute to the green light given to the Environmental Red Alert by the United Nations Secretary-General.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its 6th Climate Change Assessment Report on August 9 by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres pointing out that global warming as a red sign for humanity. The Secretary-General also emphasised that the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation could put billions of people in the world at risk of suffocation.

The Environment Ministry Media Unit on the instructions of Environment Minister Mahinda Amaraweera pointed out that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa with foresight in realising the adverse effects of climate change through the Gazette Notification No. 2238/20 of July 29, 2021 established the Presidential Task Force on Transforming Sri Lanka into a Green Social Economy with a Sustainable Solution to Climate Change. The role of this force is to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change in Sri Lanka and to directly contribute to keeping the global warming of the Paris Agreement below the global warming target of 02 degrees Celsius.

The Environment Ministry states that the President decided to suspend the re-construction of coal power plants, obtain 70 per cent of the country’s total electricity demand from renewable energy, give priority to the importation of electric cars, and motivate manufacturing plants for a green production economy. The key is to increase Sri Lanka’s forest cover to 30 percent by 2025, as well as to move Sri Lanka towards a green manufacturing economy that will enable it to enter the world market.

It was noted in the Environment Ministry clarifying that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its 6th Climate Change Assessment Report on 9 August by UN Secretary General’s report is entirely a warning report on climate change. Climate change is on the rise, making irreversible changes to the environment over the years to come. Therefore, the Secretary-General has expressed his views on what the world needs to do immediately to save the world from climate change.

The Secretary-General also emphasised that the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation could put billions of people in the world at risk of suffocation. According to the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, scientists have pointed out that climate change is affecting more and more people around the globe. Many of the current climate changes are those that did not occur hundreds of thousands of years ago, and events such as sea level rise did not occur for hundreds of thousands of years.

However, reducing the emissions of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases can reduce the incidence of climate change based on its sustainability and potential.

According to this report, the benefits of air quality can be reaped very quickly. But it could take two to three decades for global warming to stabilise.

The UN Secretary-General said in a statement that human activity has already raised the global temperature by 1.2 degrees Celsius. Therefore, global warming has increased rapidly in recent decades.