By Ifham Nizam

Sri Lanka embraced the green development pathway despite the economic downturn caused by the pandemic, Environment Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said yesterday, adding that President Gotabaya Rajapaksha had established the Presidential Task Force for the creation of a Green Sri Lanka with sustainable solutions to mitigate Climate Change.

“I have been apponted the Chairman of the Task Force. I hope this Task Force will transform Sri Lanka into a greener economy,” Amaraweera said at the Asia Pacific Green New deal cooperation Forum in South Korea.

Amaraweera stressed that Sri Lankan had pledged to meet the carbon neutrality target by 2050. To achieve the global target international co-operation for Carbon Neutrality and Green Recovery was of utmost importance, he said.

Minister Amaraweera said Sri Lanka’s updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) reflect the ambition of the country to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in potential sectors in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement that the global community adopted and committed to save mother earth.

“In this trajectory, we believe that we have a responsibility to save the planet for our future generations. Therefore, Sri Lanka has submitted more ambitious mitigation targets in updated NDCs to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in July this year,” he said.

Updated NDCs of Sri Lanka represent quantified and robust greenhouse gas emission reduction targets and resilient building needs for the current decade. Sri Lanka’s NDCs were expected to be implemented with the support of public funds, private sector investments and external assistance. In that respect, international cooperation for addressing climate change was vital as it was a global issue, the Minister noted.