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President takes up climate justice cause at COP28
View(s):President Ranil Wickremesinghe has urged world leaders to “think outside the box” on Climate Justice for developing countries.
Speaking during the 28th session of the Conference of Parties (CoP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Dubai, UAE on Friday (1), Mr. Wickremesinghe noted that the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) 2023 Report on “Broken Promises” warned that the world was facing a three-degree Celcius increase in global temperatures by the end of the century. “It is we, the developing countries, that are both disproportionately vulnerable and disproportionately impacted due to their lower adaptive capacity when it comes to investments in finance, technology, and climate,” the President pointed out.
The Independent High-Level Expert Group Report on Climate Finance highlighted that at least a trillion US dollars a year were required to combat climate change. The Transitional Committee on the Operationalisation of Funding Arrangements, in its Report of November 4, 2023, however, only called for voluntary contributions to the “Loss and Damage Fund.” The report made no mention of the funds needed or who the contributors were. It was silent on the issue of global debt relief. These were interconnected, the President said.
“Nevertheless, four days later, the Technical Dialogue of the First Global Stocktake highlighted the requirements of a minimum of a trillion US dollars per annum. To arrive at a consensus not to take up a contentious issue is not a solution. Who are we fooling?”
Climate justice must be available to all the people and all the countries, the President emphasised. “In this background, Sri Lanka will propose a resolution for a Climate Justice Forum, which was agreed upon at the 5th Forum of the Ministers of Environmental Authorities of Asia Pacific, to be moved at the UN Environment Assembly on February 6, 2024,” he told the gathering.
The President said Sri Lanka is committed to the 1.5-degree Celcius limit. “We are facing a drastic situation as we await the disaster. We must think outside of the box. We must invest in the tropical belt to tackle the triple planetary crisis,” he said. The tropical belt, covering 134 countries and 44 percent of the Earth’s surface, holds rich biodiversity and potential for renewable energy.
He added that Sri Lanka and other concerned countries would convene a panel to report on the Tropical Belt Initiative. He also revealed that Sri Lanka would be operationalising the International Climate Change University (ICCU) next year.
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