Climate change is back in the spotlight these days, and science is painting a scary picture of what’s in store for the future. While Sri Lanka finds herself rearranging her order of polity and managing an economic crisis, one could hardly blame Sri Lankans for being focused on anything but nature at present. 

However, turning a blind eye to climate change and the resultant adverse weather events is not something we ‘islanders’ can afford to do. This, while international organisation and the global intelligencia point to worsening impacts of global warming. For some time now, science has demanded that the world achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. While that may be a lofty goal for nations such as Sri Lanka, given that we will likely bear the brunt of the impact, Sri Lankan can’t afford to lose focus on this issue.  

With five days of strong rains, Sri Lanka’s flood prone regions are once again affected. This has become an annual ‘event’ and despite cost in lives, property damage, and economic impacts the weather brings each year, only few State entities take the issue seriously. It has been observed that only the local government agencies, the Ceylon Electricity Board and Irrigation Department, the armed forces and to some degree specialised agencies like the ‘Disaster Management Centre’ have taken note and have action plans in place. It is tragic that the larger state apparatus and the law-making community have not come up with a concrete action plan or a national strategy (one that’s not changed every few years, or with each new subject matter minister) to address the issue, build resilience and reduce the impact of such annual adverse weather incidents.

As a small island, Sri Lanka is highly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. Around 50% of the county’s 22 million citizens live in low-lying coastal areas, most are at major risk of the future increase in the sea level.

Sri Lanka records losses reaching hundreds of million dollars each year due to climate-related disasters. As such, is it not prudent for a country and Government that is now fixated on economic stability and growth to ensure that Sri Lanka formulate a well-debated and research-based national policy on climate change and combatting its ill effects? However, this needs the topic to be elevated to ‘centre stage’ of Sri Lanka’s political discourse. Therefore, why not do such now, when Sri Lanka is in a transitional stage – politically speaking? Given the transition in Sri Lankan polity, this may be a good opportunity to see bipartisan support for a national policy. One that everyone can get on board.

However, while we need broad consensus on such matters, the national response to climate change should be kept out of ‘politics’. The policy itself should be drafted by subject matter experts, with wide stakeholder consultations (both state and non-state entities). Perhaps the time is right for an independent climate change-related institution to lead the discourse about it, and to help the Government to develop a national policy framework. Such a framework should address the full spectrum of issues of climate change – from resilience, preparedness, adaptability and to response. We need to draft a policy which will transcend one or two governments, and perhaps be one which can be effective for the next 15 to 30 years. Sri Lanka has benefited from long-term projects before. Therefore, there’s no reason why we can’t do it again.

In doing so, Sri Lanka will have to face the challenge of investing in research, a long-standing shortcoming of governance. However, investing in research is not something that can be put off anymore. We need a lot of planning. Sri Lanka has already been a country that led the way in responding to the climate over the last two millennia, where kings built hundreds of village tanks and reservoirs, and that was a response to drought. We have this intricate network of irrigation systems across the country, which have given us resilience to climate change. Therefore, we must do so again.