SL commits to achieving SDGs, Net Zero carbon emissions by 2040

• President says attracting global financial facilities through commercial investments is key
• Urges private sector to be more aware of how the world is changing so that it can improve its commitment to ESG

President addressing the ESG Summit

Sri Lanka affirmed its commitment to achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2040, for which President Ranil Wickremesinghe outlined some measures the island nation will roll out in this regard. 

The measures include harnessing renewable energy, modernising agriculture, and addressing water shortages.
“To this end, attracting global financial facilities through commercial investments is key. 

“The transformation from plantation businesses to agribusiness, promotion of sustainable tourism, and product improvement and digitisation are the main objectives. Additionally, four new technical universities are being established to support technical education and innovation,” he said.

While addressing the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Summit 2024 in Colombo yesterday, the President pointed out the need for the business community, especially the private sector, to be more aware of how the world is changing so that it can improve commitments in this regard.

“We have to push it further. And I think we are the best of all the countries in South Asia to do so. The Maldives is like us but a bit too small. The rest, I don’t think they are ready. So we must be the first,” Wickremesinghe told a fully packed audience at the conference.

Themed ‘Sustainable Pathways for a Brighter Future’, the event featured 15 experts in environment, society, and governance, who shed light on innovative solutions for achieving sustainability.

However, while commending the private sector, global and local, for moving in the ESG direction, he urged stakeholders to keep in mind the geopolitical situation in the world today, which seems to be coming in the opposite direction. 

“All the hurrah of the SDGs and of the Paris Climate Summit and even Glasgow have got stuck. We have not made very much progress since then. And the situation also is not good. The world is still recovering from Covid-19, a year or two,” he noted.

The Chinese economy is not performing at its best and would take a few more years. Even the US economy, which talked of a boom, now talks of the job market disappearing. 

Europe too, is going ahead, but is facing its own set of problems which will take a few more years to resolve.
“So it’s in this background that we are looking at the Sustainable Development Goals. How do we achieve them? For us, where are the funds? How many countries can spend money on this? And you see a turnaround, well, how ESG will be treated, and the approach if Trump becomes President, is an open question,” said Wickremesinghe.
He noted that more disturbing was what happened in the UK. Under Boris Johnson, the Glasgow Conference and the Principals were welcomed by everyone, and within two years, his own successor, Rishi Sunak, had gone back on everything just to get the right-wing vote for reform which he failed also. 

Today there is a new government in the UK which wants to turn it back but remember the UK no longer has the money,” Wickremesinghe pointed out.

“We have been talking of all the funds that we are to get. We talk at COP 27, 28, 29. This time I am going to wear a hat and go there because each time they mention this, I will raise my hat because it’s like an old friend passing me by,” he quipped. 

“I don’t think there’s anything more you could do but there’ll be a good fight there. How much money are we giving? We went to Paris for the debt meeting, but the results are still not out yet. And to make it worse, I don’t know how the Paris assembly would react to it. But where is the money? They are short of money,” he added.