By Lakwimashi Perera
The European Union delegation in Sri Lanka to discuss among other matters GSP+ concessions, was pleasantly surprised with the environmental laws, the Carbon Fund, the Climate Change Secretariat and conservation levies in the country, the Environmental and Natural Resources Minister said.

Patali Champaka Ranawaka told The Sunday Times FT in an interview that this is “because we have achieved European standards.” He pointed out however that the delegation had raised issues on the need for human rights to be complied with and labour laws to be fulfilled.

Speaking of the private sector involvement in environmental issues, the Minister accused a majority of the private sector of not being sincerely involved with it. “Most of them are only trying to commodify their products and only a very few companies are making a sincere effort to help the environment,” he said. On the new environmental conservation levies that have been introduced, the Minister said, “We’re the first Asian country that introduced market based instruments as a financial policy.” Market-based instruments are policy instruments that use price or other economic variables to provide incentives for polluters to reduce harmful emissions. The levies were introduced to change the behavioural patterns of producers and consumers to make them more environmentally friendly. Incentives will be given to entrepreneurs who engage in environmentally friendly businesses while those whose activities are detrimental to the environment will be taxed.

He added that there is huge potential for businesses to turn environmentally friendly and venture into green business trends and that the government will assist organizations that use green methods of construction and maintenance of buildings, energy conservation methods and who will use alternatives for goods that are pollutants.

Carbon Trading
“We were the first country in the region to establish a National Carbon Fund but we face two problems when it comes to carbon trading,” the Minister said. Explaining further he said that one of the reasons is that the amount of carbon available in the projects here is very low and another is that the process is very cumbersome. Anyone getting involved will need a relatively long staying power. “Through the Carbon Fund we hope to cluster projects and also to take over the burden of the process,” he said.

Climate change
The Minister pointed at climate change and the fossil fuel crisis as two of the main environmental issues plaguing the country. As far as emissions are concerned, Sri Lanka has a per capita emission of 600 kg of Carbon whereas the USA is as high as 24,000 kg and Norway is at 20,000 kg. With the emissions of the Western nations being as high as they are, the Carbon budget for the entire century will be spent by 2032. “This will stall our development as the allotted amount of emission would have already been exceeded,” Mr. Ranawaka said adding that ‘our right to live and our right to progress as a country are thus violated’.

Increasing global temperatures can lead to dire consequences, one of the most serious of them being the melting of polar ice caps. “If the Arctic melts, the sea in Sri Lanka will be in Kaduwela,” Mr. Ranawaka warned, adding that the sea level will rise by approximately 200 feet if the entire South Pole melts.

Environmental Debt
When Western nations emit more than their allotted carbon emissions they intrude on ‘our’ sovereignty because then we will be deprived of the right to emit up to 2100 kg of carbon, Mr. Ranawaka explained adding that this is a problem common to the entire SAARC region.

This was addressed at the 15th SAARC summit and all eight countries agreed that climate change justice should be demanded and that the atmosphere should be shared by all equally, he further added. “This is a great international victory for us because on the one hand we cannot develop as a country and on the other, the damage caused by climate change affects the whole world, not just the developed countries,” the Minister said.