Sri Lanka PM Says Climate Change Fight At Forefront Of Govt Agenda
Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe assured an international conference in Colombo that ‘climate change resilience’ would come to the forefront of the government agenda.
The Premier made this observation participating as the chief guest at the inauguration of the 19th International Conference of World Renewable Energy Congress (WREC) held at Hilton Colombo under the theme of “Green Colombo”.
Wickremesinghe said the government had to contend with many issues such as how to re-establish democracy, how to go about reconciliation, many economic problems including the high level of debt, drop in revenue.
“This kept the government agenda full for about three to three and half years. Now we have the space to plan on issues such as climate change,” Wickremesinghe said.
The Premier said that climate change resilience was essential for a country like Sri Lanka for the future of this generation and the future of the next generatio. “We must ensure that the climate is safeguarded.”
The Prime Minister further said that climate change has become a point of controversy. “We have to go ahead with the plans and programmes which need to ensure climate change does not affect us adversely and that we become climate resilient,” the Prime Minister said.
“When we talk about climate change, we have to look at the main sources of pollution. Those happened to be the sources of energy,” the Prime Minister added.
The PM further said that the renewable energy plays a big role in minimizing pollution. When the population expands, the standard of living goes up and the pollution increases.
“We in Sri Lanka are aware of the adverse impact that is taking place, the need for renewable energy, the need for a plan, the deed to have green cities. Megapolis has been the first project we started after we came in to power in 2015. Sri Lanka is situated in the Indian Ocean which needs a big megalopolis around it taking all the cities modernizing and interconnected. It has to be a green city. Kandy has to be a green city. We are also paying attention not to limit this concept to the cities but to the other parts of the country,” he said.
The Premier further added that it is required to have a wide plan to use renewable energy in power supply, transport system and domestic electricity supply.