Ruwan says SL to present long-term plan to prevent increasing climate change

Since the economy and the environment are linked, a long-term plan will be presented to prevent the increasing climate changes, said Senior Adviser to the President on Climate Change Ruwan Wijewardene.

Wijewardene stated this while addressing the opening session of the “Climate Finance” conference held recently in Bangkok, Thailand.

This conference was held with the participation of members of many international governmental and non-governmental organisations related to climate change and economy.

Wijewardene noted that everyone should come together in the process of overcoming weather and climate change. Sri Lanka has already started several programs to reduce environmental and air pollution, he said.

He further commented that Sri Lanka is currently going through a very difficult economic situation, which is one of the biggest economic crises since independence. Socio-economically, this situation needs to be reformed immediately.

Sri Lanka is an island therefore; it is highly vulnerable to weather and climate change. This situation has been getting worse over time. “We are facing water-based disasters in particular,” he noted.

According to the latest reports released in 2018 in the Global Climate Risk Index, Sri Lanka is among the ten countries that are mostly vulnerable to weather and climate risks in the world.

 “At a time when there is such a crisis situation in the country, it becomes difficult to manage climate change issues. In particular, the need to depend on local resources is necessary to secure our future,” Wijewardene said.