19 October 2024 12:00 am Views - 84
B. K. Prabath Chandrakeerthi,
the Secretary to Environment, Wildlife, Forest Resources, Water Supply, Plantations, and Community Infrastructure, highlighted Sri Lanka’s partnership with GGGI and stated that the country is committed to climate and risk mitigation as key principles for agricultural development, along with the transition to electric mobility as part of the national transportation strategy.
He said that in December 2022, GGGI launched the “Strengthening Tea Industry Sustainability in Sri Lanka” initiative in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and Plantation Industries. The project focuses on promoting climate resilience, sustainable investments, and agroforestry in the tea sector.
Addressing the summit of the Global Green Growth Initiative (GGGI) in Seoul, South Korea, he explained that a sustainability needs assessment (SNA) was conducted to identify challenges and investment opportunities.
He said, “GGGI is implementing an agroforestry model and AI-based yield forecasting to boost productivity and resilience, offering data-driven insights to scale sustainable practices across Sri Lanka’s tea industry.”
A new President, Anura Kumara Dissanayake from the National People’s Power (NPP), was elected in Sri Lanka at the recently concluded Presidential Election held on the 21st of September. The NPP manifesto underscores clean and green energy as a critical response to climate change and highlights climate-smart crop management practices and climate mitigation efforts within the science and technology framework.
Sri Lanka became a member of GGGI in 2019. The Government of Sri Lanka and GGGI signed a Host Country Agreement (HCA) in February 2023, which officially came into force on 10 June 2024. Since then, the partnership has gone from strength to strength.
GGGI is currently working closely with the Government of Sri Lanka on climate action as the delivery partner of a GCF readiness support project on strengthening capacity and institutions for implementing Sri Lanka’s National Adaptation Plan (NAP). Under this initiative, Sri Lanka’s NAP is being revised to reflect new and updated adaptation actions aligned with the updated NDCs. At the same time, the NAP will contribute to the NDCs 3.0. The initiative has also developed Sri Lanka’s first-ever Provincial Adaptation Plans (PAPs) and investment plans, along with provincial-level institutional arrangements for climate action across all nine provinces. This significant achievement unlocks fresh opportunities for adaptation investments in Sri Lanka.
GGGI continues to assist the Sri Lankan government in enhancing sustainable finance initiatives, with the overall objective of issuing Green and Social bonds in Sri Lanka. These efforts support both sovereign interventions and private-sector engagement. By supporting the development of green bond frameworks for banks, the aim is to secure cost-effective, long-term financing for key climate change mitigation and adaptation projects. GGGI has supported two private-sector banks (NDB and Commercial Bank of Ceylon) in creating their thematic bond frameworks for issuances. In September, the Commercial Bank announced plans for a green bond issuance on the Sri Lankan stock exchange to raise approximately USD 17 million. GGGI has also provided technical assistance to the Ministry of Finance for developing Sri Lanka’s sovereign bond framework.