Disappointments for Sri Lanka at climate talks
While OPEC members and some Global North nations exploit technicalities and grey wordings on international decision texts, countries like Sri Lanka bear the brunt of climate-induced weather events
The 28th Conference of Parties (COP28) closed to mixed reviews on December 13, twenty-three hours later than scheduled.
The first Global Stocktake (GST) was adopted, recognising the need to expedite the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in line with 1.5°C pathways. The GST process allows everyone to identify where they are collectively making progress towards meeting the Paris Climate Change Agreement goals, and where they are not.
A few days later, however, COP28 President Sultan Al-Jaber reaffirmed his own oil company Adnoc’s commitment to invest in oil and gas — fossil fuels at the root of the climate crisis.
COP28 is yet another United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) summit without the unabated call for a phase-out of fossil fuels. The decision texts agreed upon read:
“…transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner ... so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science”.
With its many adjectives, experts say it is too weak a call at this stage of the climate crisis. “It’s like trying to mop a flooding room without turning off the faucet,” said Sri Lankan climate activist Jeanna de Zoysa.
While OPEC members and some Global North nations exploit technicalities and grey wordings on international decision texts, countries like Sri Lanka bear the brunt of climate-induced weather events.
The Sri Lanka Government was determined to make a mark at this year’s summit, investing in its first-ever pavilion and hosting a staggering 31 events and many bilaterals. The tab is still being calculated. Nonetheless, Sri Lanka’s interventions were absent in many key negotiations over the two weeks of COP28.
Newly-appointed Environment Minister Keheliya Rambukwella was absent from many of the country statements on various agenda items and events — like the climate-health ministerial and even a Joint Crediting Mechanism event at the Japan pavilion, a crucial instrument on climate finance.
He missed most of his sessions and sent his secretary to some, Sri Lanka delegation sources said, requesting anonymity. While he avoided our specific questions regarding his absence, his staff sources claimed it was because he was “overbooked”.
Mr Rambukwella had bilaterals with the Environment Ministers of the UAE and the Philippines, iRise Global Inc., the Glasgow Finance Alliance for Net Zero, IPCC, Adaptation Fund, and Green Climate Fund as well as various carbon trading projects.
His discussions with UAE's Environment Minister centred on Sri Lanka's climate priorities, Mr Rambukwella told the Sunday Times. Investments in renewable energy (RE) and collaboration on the Mangrove Alliance for Climate (MAC) programme were explored.
The Philippines Environment Minister expressed support for Sri Lanka's Tropical Belt and Climate Justice Forum. They also spoke of carbon trading projects, Article 6 readiness, and financial backing for net-zero plans. His engagement with iRise Global Inc. included potential collaboration on carbon and biodiversity credit projects including in the agriculture and agro-forestry sectors.
The Sri Lanka Government will continue to push the Climate Justice Forum, Tropical Belt Initiative, and the Climate Change University as key priorities, Mr Rambukwella said. Commenting on future climate strategy, he highlighted the development of a carbon trading framework, Nationally Determined Contributions implementation and the National Adaptation Plan update along with the upcoming submission of the first Biennial Transparency Report, and efforts to develop Provincial Adaptation Plans tailored to regional needs.
Mr Rambukwella said he had engaged with the COP28 youth delegation on “innovative renewable energy technology solutions, capacity building, circular economy practices, and nature-based solutions”.
However, the Sunday Times can confirm that he did not have direct engagements with any members of the youth delegation. While Sri Lanka was recognised by the UNFCCC for being one of the countries with the most number of youth-led events, the minister didn’t attend at any events organised by youth in the Sri Lankan pavilion. We observed that delegates who invited stakeholders to bilaterals on the promise the minister would attend were often left in the uncomfortable position of making excuses for his last-minute cancellations.
Sri Lanka faced scheduling conflicts across the board. Attendance of ministry officials at agenda item meetings — the core negotiations at COP28 — was varied. Deliberations on loss and damage and agriculture saw regular interventions by Sri Lankan officials, but Article 6 negotiators were frequently absent from their relevant meeting rooms. (Article 6 of the Paris Agreement sets out the rules for global trade in greenhouse gas emissions reductions).
This was because of commitments at the Sri Lanka pavilion, ministry officials maintained. “There were a lot of lessons this year that we must make sure we learn from and improve for upcoming climate summits,” noted Environment Ministry Secretary Dr. Anil Jasinghe. He said the country’s first-ever pavilion at the international event was a serious undertaking.
Dr. Jasinghe, by contrast, was seen hard at work, making numerous interventions and representations for Sri Lanka in many spaces. The result of this year’s COP was underwhelming from a developing country's point of view, he concurred.
“The Global Stocktake revealed that progress was insufficient,” he said. “The target was to cut 43% of emissions by 2030 compared to 2019 globally, which hasn’t happened.”
Consequently, the GST has called on parties to triple RE capacity and double energy efficiency by 2030; and to produce ambitious economy-wide emission reduction targets. But, as usual, commitment gaps were identified on the part of the developed countries, Dr. Jasinghe observed.
COP28 called for a doubling of adaptation finance and for targets to be set for 2030 in terms of water security, ecosystem restoration, and health under the Global Goal of Adaptation.
“There were no decisions on carbon markets, which is unfortunate since countries like ours could benefit from it, but voluntary markets will continue amidst discussions on how to supervise them to troubleshoot the credibility issues associated with them,” Dr. Jasinghe said.
Carbon markets are a specialised type of financial market, through which carbon credits — essentially permits that allow the purchaser to emit a certain amount of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas — can be bought and sold.
The terminology on fossil fuels was also significantly “diluted” this year, Dr. Jasinghe pointed out. While COP28 reemphasised cutting greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible by 2050, Dr. Jasinghe felt emissions will peak by 2025 globally, given the trend in countries like China and India.
Severe backslides in agriculture negotiations were a concern, especially for agriculture-based countries like Sri Lanka, with the Sharm-el-Sheikh joint work on implementation of climate action on agriculture and food security — one of COP27’s crowning glories — crashing this year.
The four-year work programme under UNFCCC is aimed at safeguarding food security and ending hunger, and addressing the particular vulnerabilities of food production systems to the adverse impacts of climate change.
One goal was to establish a coordination committee for the plan at COP28, pointed out Buddhi Marambe, senior professor of the faculty of agriculture at the University of Peradeniya.
But developed countries threw in a wrench when they wanted to start over with a new text, instead of opening the previous one. “We made strong interventions and insisted that we build from the text that we already have,” Prof. Marambe noted.
The dialogue collapsed because of disagreements on establishing the coordinating committee and has been postponed to Bonn in June this year, he said. “But one year out of the four-year work plan has gone to waste completely.”
Newly-appointed Environment Minister Keheliya Rambukwella was absent from many of the country statements on various agenda items and events — like the climate-health ministerial and even a Joint Crediting Mechanism event at the Japan pavilion, a crucial instrument on climate finance.