2016 ‘very likely’ to be world’s warmest year
2016 looks poised to be the warmest year on record globally, according to preliminary data.
With data from just the first nine months, scientists are 90% certain that 2016 will pass the mark set by 2015.
Temperatures from January to September were 1.2C above pre-industrial levels, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
The body says temperatures should remain high enough for the rest of the year to break the previous record.
El Nino has had an impact, but the most significant factor driving temperatures up continues to be CO2 emissions.
What is climate change?
The provisional statement on the status of the global climate in 2016 has been released early this year to help inform negotiators meeting in Morocco, who are trying to push forward with the Paris Climate Agreement.
The document says the year to September was 0.88 above the average for the period between 1961-90, which the WMO uses at its baseline.
The whole of 2015, which broke the previous record by a significant amount, was 0.77 above the 1961-90 average.
While there are still a couple of months to go this year, a preliminary analysis of the October data indicates that 2016 is very much on track to surpass the 2015 level, which in turn broke the previous high mark set in 2014.
“Another year. Another record. The high temperatures we saw in 2015 are set to be beaten in 2016,” said WMO secretary-general Petteri Taalas.
“In parts of Arctic Russia, temperatures were 6°C to 7°C above the long-term average. Many other Arctic and sub-Arctic regions in Russia, Alaska and north-west Canada were at least 3°C above average. We are used to measuring temperature records in fractions of a degree, and so this is different,” said Mr Taalas.
The report highlights the fact that other long-term climate change indicators are also breaking records. The amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere continued on its upward march in 2016.
Arctic sea ice continued to melt in significant amounts, while the Greenland ice sheet displayed very early melting this year.
Experts believe that the El Nino weather phenomenon played a role in the record warm temperatures seen in 2015 and 2016.
They quantify it as roughly 0.2 of a degree – but the bulk of the warming is coming from the accumulation of greenhouse gases. And the impacts of that warming are being widely felt.
“Because of climate change, the occurrence and impact of extreme events has risen,” said Petteri Taalas.
“‘Once in a generation’ heatwaves and flooding are becoming more regular. Sea level rise has increased exposure to storm surges associated with tropical cyclones,” he said.2016 set to be world’s warmest year
The surprise election of Donald Trump as president of the US has increased expectations that he will bring a more sceptical view of climate change to the White House.
Scientists are stressing that the evidence for the reality of climate change is getting stronger all the time.
“We are seeing the impacts of climate change on extreme weather,” said Dr Peter Stott, who leads the climate attribution team at the UK Met Office.
“One degree may sound a relatively small number but in the context of such a stable climate that we’ve had over the past millennia, and the rapidity of that warming, we are seeing this real world evidence that doesn’t come from a model or a projection.”
According to the WMO analysis, 16 of the 17 warmest years have been recorded this century. The only exception was 1998.
Source : 15/11/2016 : Ceylon Today ; http://www.ceylontoday.lk/article20161101CT20161231.php?id=2801
Coping With A Changing Climate
A recent report issued by the UN Development Program, the Global Environmental Facility and the Government of Australia, evaluating the preparedness of Sri Lanka to deal with Climate Change pointed out the a lack of “awareness about climate change impacts on the livelihood among farmers and local government officials, especially those engaged in water management and agriculture extension”. This is not the first warning; we have had plenty of time to deal with this need. An article titled; Climate Change’ published in 2011 asked of the outcome of the Durban meeting that our climate change experts went to:
“While awaiting to hear of the brilliant contributions that Sri Lanka has made to the just concluded United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), conference in Durban, the view from Durban is somewhat clouded. The global polluters are demonstrating extreme disdain of accepting any responsibility they have to the rest of humanity who share a common atmosphere with them. The unilateral move by Canada in withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol, a move endorsed by the fossil energy industry, demonstrates how much public interest has been eroded from political enclaves.
The UNFCC itself is a lame duck, it is still unable to recognize or identify the difference in value of carbon originating from biotic sources and fossil sources. This fact is commonsense; that while a diamond, petroleum, a lump of coal, piece of wood or piece of fruit is comprised of carbon, they are not the same, and they have different values. So in burning them up we have to recognize the value (cost) of each. The carbon dioxide that emanates from them by burning is also different. The carbon dioxide from biotic carbon will always have the carbon isotope C14, while carbon dioxide from fossil carbon will never contain C14. In time, the differences are in millions of years. This much is common knowledge, most high school children are already aware of these facts. Then why has the UNFCC chosen not to ‘see’ that there is a value and temporal difference between biotic and fossil carbon cycles? A cynic might say that many are in the pay of the energy industry. But, what about our Sri Lankan scientists who attended Durban? Surely they will never sell out to the energy industry! Perhaps they have already identified these fundamental structural flaws within the UNFCC and we might see this stand reflected in their reports.
In the meanwhile, apart from the innumerable conferences and workshops that we could have, what should we do in Sri Lanka? This question has come sharply into focus with the news that Russian scientists have discovered hundreds of plumes of methane gas, some over 1,000 meters in diameter, bubbling to the surface of the Arctic Ocean. Methane is about 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. Dr.Igor Semiletov of the Russian Academy of Sciences stated in a recent interview “ Earlier we found torch-like structures like this but they were only tens of meters in diameter. This is the first time that we’ve found continuous, powerful and impressive seeping structures, more than 1,000 meters in diameter. It’s amazing.”
All this points to the need for immediate action. Landscapes are slow to respond to rapid changes. The effect of the increase in storm force was apparent all last year. By now we should have had some national adaptation strategies. Yes, there has been a plethora of conferences around the subject, but what do I do if my drinking water runs out? What do I do if there is salt intrusion into my field? How do I deal with sudden windstorms? If the years spent on discussing adaptation had borne any fruit, we would now be seeing public education programs on climate change preparedness by now. “
Sadly, today, in 2016 we have the UNDP stating that in Sri Lanka there is a lack of “awareness about climate change impacts on the livelihood among farmers and local government officials, especially those engaged in water management and agriculture extension”
It is now patently clear that we will face a scarcity of food as the global temperatures rise. Chlorophyll, the primary material of life begins to denature as the 39degree threshold is passed. We are already witnessing 40 degree plus temperatures in many nations with the probability of exposure times increasing (fig 1). Should we not have been conducting tests on heat resistant crops or adaptive landscapes ?
Compounding the hypocrisy that is being foisted on us. There is the spectacle of Sri Lanka signing the Paris Accord to keep global temperatures under control by limiting out carbon output while gleefully promoting the construction of mega cities with no concern of their carbon footprint. When we consider that for every ton of concrete we emit 800 kgs of CO2 and every ton of steel is responsible for 1.2 tons of CO2, who has reported on the increase in CO2 emissions by this giant city building exercise? If the climate change secretariat has failed to account for both the construction and operational CO2 costs of construction in Sri Lanka, we would be cheating in our international obligations.
The impact of climate change is serious, there is a universal need to be educated and prepare for the consequences. We have been very delinquent in this regard as stated by the UNDP study. Hiding our heads in the sand will not make the problem go away. Increasing our carbon footprint in the name of ‘economic development’ is certainly an act of shooting ourselves in the foot and increasing the impact of climate change!
Source : 30th October 2016; Colombo Telegraph https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/coping-with-a-changing-climate/
Sri Lanka Advocates Climate Change Mitigation Through Humane Lifestyle
At present, climate change has become one of the major challenges faced by mankind. In view of the adverse impacts of climate change, cuts in global emission levels are considered to be an imperative and immediate need. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) has noted that livestock supply chains, the meat production industry in particular, are among the most significant contributors to climate change with emissions estimated at 7.1 gigatonnes CO2-eq per annum, representing 14.5 percent of human-induced GHG emissions. In addition, animal agriculture also results in more dire consequences as seen in the deforestation for grazing purposes, the loss of biodiversity, and pollution of water sources due to animal waste disposal.
Mitigation efforts should therefore take into account the greenhouse gas emissions of the livestock industry. As such, the campaign for meatless food consumption has significant implications as an ecologically conscious, alternative lifestyle pattern. It is clear from the facts that a sizeable reduction in terms of daily meat consumption would contribute immensely towards reductions in emission and in country’s reaching their emission targets as promised in the Paris Agreement. This would not only ensure healthy living but also would help fulfil the individual and collective responsibility in contributing to the reduction of the carbon footprint. Further, the rescaling of meat industry would lead to more sustainable patterns of livestock production which incorporates humane farming practices that would ensure the welfare of animals.
The recently ratified Nationally Determined Contributions of Sri Lanka (NDCs) include climate actions that focus on the sectors pertaining to livestock sector. This would also have impacts of co-benefit based actions as livestock industry would feature under adaptation as a sector mentioned within the NDCs, though it will also contribute to the reduction of emissions if focusing on reducing the scale of animal agriculture, and reduce the meat production. It is important that in the implementation of these NDCs, that the country adopts a humane approach, as all beings are impacted by climate change, not only humans.
Speaking at the Global Youth Forum on Climate Change, Bhagya Wickramasinghe, who works with SLYCAN Trust with animal welfare related issues, commented on SLYCAN Trusts’s new initiative- Meatless Monday- which advocates change of lifestyle towards the meatless/vegan option by recognizing the impact of meat on the health and environment through conscious eating habits. She mentioned that mindful eating, and meatless food consumption are important in fulfilling our individual contribution to mitigating climate change impacts.
As part of the Sri Lankan government’s agenda in addressing the issue of climate change, the Ministry of Mahaweli Development and Environment of Sri Lanka recently organised the ‘Sri Lanka Next – A Blue Green Era’ Conference and Exhibition, and the 5th Asia- Pacific Climate Change Adaptation Forum, which took place from 17th – 19th October at Bandaranaike Memorial International Convention Hall. The forum focused on the theme of “adapting and living below 2*c: bridging gaps in policy and practice”. As a token of the significance of vegetarianism in mitigating climate change issues, the inauguration reception for Sri Lanka NEXT conference was held as a meatless dinner. The reception which was held on the eve of the 17th of October was attended by over 1000 international and local delegates participating in the APAN forum. The array of food which included many different types of cuisines, served as a tangible reminder of the alternative lifestyle options that are more environmentally friendly and sensitive to animal welfare. On the whole, the reception which marked the commencement of the Government’s official campaign in addressing climate change, reiterated an important message in highlighting the significance of meatless food consumption in fulfilling our individual and social responsibility towards creating a better environment.
Source : Colombo Telegraph https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/sri-lanka-advocates-climate-change-mitigation-through-humane-lifestyle/
Sri Lanka prioritizes sustainable development with a strict policy against environmental degradation
Sustainable development is a priority for the government and development projects will be implemented adhering to a strict policy against environmental degradation, Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena said.
President Sirisena said that not only Sri Lanka, but the whole world has to face the consequences of environmental pollution and further emphasized that the present government follows a very stern policy against the destruction of environment and depletion of natural resources.
Addressing a ceremony to launch “Sri Lanka NEXT – Blue Green Era” policy initiative, held at the BMICH, on Tuesday (18), the President emphasized that if any individual or institution take actions to harm the environment the Government will not hesitate to enforce the laws against the wrongdoers. He also said that as the Minister of Environment recently, he took strong decisions against several incidents of this type reported in various parts of the country.
The President said the state officials and the institutions responsible for the environmental conservation should act in a responsible manner, in this regard and said that he believed the relevant authorities will fulfill their respective responsibilities honorably by taking effective steps against the smugglers.
The year 2017 has been declared as a year of eradication of poverty in the country, the President said adding that all the initiatives in this regard will be implemented giving priority to the sustainable development, one of the main objectives of the Government.
“The Government has understood the importance of moving towards natural resources while resolving issues related to the energy field,” he added.
A series of programs for taking Sri Lanka towards a green era are being carried out from Oct. 17-19 at the BMICH. The Asia Pacific Conference on climate change simulations commenced yesterday with the participation of 500 foreign scientists.
International Research Seminar, film exhibition on environment, exhibition on environmental creations and productions, specialists’ dialog and a global youth society on climate change were held in parallel to this summit. Over 80 Presidential Awards were presented at the main ceremony held today.
The UN Resident Coordinator Una McCauley officially presented the Green Climate Fund’s assistance of USD 38.18 million to support dry zone communities to adapt to climate change to the President at the occasion.
The first copy of the publication on climate change, prepared by the Climate Change Secretariat of the Ministry of Mahaweli Development and Environment was presented to the President.
Source : Colombo Page http://www.colombopage.com/archive_16B/Oct18_1476800804CH.php
Climate change and its effect on agriculture
According to Disaster Management Centre data over 200,000 people have been affected by the recent drought. Among those who experience water shortage due to the drought are 69,678 people in Eastern Province, 8,600 people in Northern Province, 8,422 people in North Western Province, over 10,000 people in Sabaragamuwa Province and 110,350 people from 23,000 families in the North Central Province.
Kirama Oya and Kattakaduwa tanks in the southern part of Sri Lanka have almost run dry and the National Water Supply and Drainage Board is working to resolve the issue of salt water intrusion into the Kalu Ganga River.
Although the Water Board assures that water supply to Colombo will not be affected, those affected in the Northern Province, North Central Province, North Western Province and Sabaragamuwa Province will have to be provided with water bowsers.
Freak weather is an indicator of climate change. In fact, climate change is characterized by the rise in temperature, rising sea levels and extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, cyclones, landslides and issues such as salt water intrusion.
The global temperature is expected to rise 1.8 to 40 C by the end of the 21st Century.
Developing nations are considered more susceptible to climate change effects as economic constrains make it difficult for them to deal with the damages caused by climate change. They are also technologically less advanced and therefore lack access to adaptive technology.
Being a natural resource dependent production process, agriculture is the most vulnerable to climate change. For example farmers island-wide complain of the reduction in crops due to the prevailing drought. Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) North Western Provincial Councillor and the National Organizer of the All Ceylon Peasants Federation, Namal Karunaratne said that farmers of vegetables such as radish, kohlrabi, chillies, beetroot and capsicum chillies – all of which require water twice a day – big onions, potato (solanum tuberosum), corn, cow pea, green gram, orid (undu), cucumber (pipigngna and kekiri), soya and fruits including water melon, banana and coconut were the worst affected.
Karunaratne noted that the cost of production is high owing to the fact that fertilizer and seeds are expensive while farmers must also bring in water from elsewhere.
“The cost of vegetables on the other hand has gone down”, he explained. “In the wells they have built to procure water for farming purposes, the water levels are low. In others, the mud and silt must be removed. Then, there are others who have dug wells near tanks and because they do not have electricity, they must use kerosene or diesel to power the motors of the water pumps. The cost of fuel is high. This still does not compensate for natural rain. These are additional costs they have to incur. This is unfair for the farmers”.
Sixty-six per cent of Sri Lankan cropland is rain-fed, making them most vulnerable to drought. Paddy, tea, spices and vegetable cultivation are affected by drought and delayed monsoonal rains.
Paddy specifically depends on water for most of its lifecycle. According to an exploratory study on adapting to climate change in coastal areas of Sri Lanka by Shanila Athulathmudali, et al, nearly 70 per cent of the paddy cultivated is in the dry zone which has an average annual rainfall of less than 1750 mm. Consequently, adaptive measures are vital when climate goes haywire.
On the other hand excess rainfall has an equally detrimental effect. For example 50 per cent of the cropland in four agricultural districts was inundated due to the January 2011 floods. Sea level rise does not only affect fisheries, it also affects agricultural practices in the interior as salt water intrudes into internal water bodies on which cultivations depend for irrigation. Whichever climatic extreme prevails, agricultural productivity suffers.
Smallholder farmers of developing nations will, thus, have to bear the brunt of climate change effects. Smallholder farmers are especially at risk as income generated through agriculture is their only source of sustenance. Climate change effects heighten poverty levels in the rural agriculture sector, which will further impede climate adaptation measures making them increasingly vulnerable to climate variability, which in turn further reduces agricultural productivity, further increasing poverty. This is a vicious cycle. Consequently climate change adaptation is vital for the protection of those engaged in agriculture as well as for food security in general.
Adaptation strategies
According to IPCC Fourth Assessment Report 2007, adaptation is the adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities.
Research such as Agricultural adaptation to climate change: insights from a farming community in Sri Lanka by Esham Mohamed and Chris Garforth have identified different types of adaptation. Introducing improved crop varieties, micro irrigation, reduction of irrigation depth and crop diversification are among the major adaptation strategies. Adopted measures at farm scale are crop, land, irrigation management and income diversification (Mohamed and Garforth, 2013). Crop management techniques such as changing crop variety, using mulches, changing planting time to suit rainfall variability, changing crop type to suit prevailing climate, shortening of growing season, planting shade trees and crop rotation are autonomous adaptive techniques employed at farm level in Sri Lanka.
The objective of adaptation strategies such as changing planting time, shortening of growing season, changing crop type and crop rotation is to ensure that critical growth periods do not overlap with dry spells. In fact, Mohamed and Garforth note that most Sri Lankan farmers opt for short-term paddy to overcome water shortage due to delayed monsoons. Farmers employ water and soil conservation techniques such as using crop residue as mulches and planting shade trees to reduce soil moisture loss. Mohamed and Garforth have observed that more farmers are reverting to traditional farming practices such as direct seeding to minimize water usage. Cultivation of alternate crops during dry spells has become the norm.
Water management adaptive systems include; increased use of supplementary irrigation, water conservation, rain water harvesting and using ground water. Adaptive land management techniques include soil conservation techniques, reduced tillage and deep ploughing and shifting cultivation. Income diversification techniques include off-farm employment. In an exploratory study on adapting to climate change in coastal areas of Sri Lanka, Shanila Athulathmudali observes that current adaptive practices are undertaken as a supplementary income. For example, saline resistant crops are grown on degraded land and sold at premium prices in niche markets. This is an additional income to their traditional paddy cultivation.
Genetically refined seed varieties developed by the Rice Research and Development Institute (RRDI) are a prime example for planned adaptation. Athulathmudali points out that genetically modified rice varieties that could tolerate unfavourable and problematic soil conditions such as iron toxicity, salinity, acid sulphate, low temperature, flood and drought situations could help increase productivity.
“The total cultivation area under these conditions is estimated to be around 30 per cent of the total rice lands in the country and their present yield levels range between 2 to 2.5t/ha,” Athulathmudali has noted.
Government institutions are responsible for the development and dissemination of new agriculture technology. Alleviating the pressure of climate change by rehabilitating minor tanks and providing fertilizer is another essential aspect of climate adaptation, according to Athulathmudali.
A sustainable agricultural policy is an essential climate change adaptation strategy. The Sri Lankan agricultural policy acknowledges and promotes the need to address sustainable principles as; increasing productivity of water and land by enhancing crop production through the application of sustainable cultivation practices; cultivating crops based on agro-climatic conditions and promoting agro-based industries; promoting production and utilization of organic and bio-fertilizers to gradually reduce the use of chemical fertilizers through Integrated Plant Nutrition Systems (IPNS); encouraging the use of efficient water management and moisture retention techniques to achieve high productivity in agriculture; conserving existing water resources for sustainable agricultural development; improving efficiency of rain-fed agriculture through water harvesting, mulching; promoting participatory irrigation management in maintaining and improving irrigation and drainage systems; promoting conservation of rain water and ground water; increasing water-use efficiency and promoting modern and intensive irrigation technologies for water conservation; promoting land conservation within watershed areas; strengthening rural credit institutions connected with farmers’ investments, savings and risk management and introducing appropriate agricultural insurance schemes to protect the farmers from the risks associated with natural calamities. (Source: Ministry of Agriculture 2009-2010, online.)
Obstacles to adaptation
Achieving afore-mentioned policy objectives is easier said than done. For example promoting production and utilization of organic and bio-fertilizers to gradually reduce the use of chemical fertilizers through Integrated Plant Nutrition Systems (IPNS), is difficult to achieve when the government is forced to subsidize fertilizer, just because scrapping the subsidy would be political suicide. Farmers are not inclined to switch to organic and bio-fertilizers when chemical fertilizer is low cost and easy to use.
Likewise promoting land conservation within watershed areas is difficult when such areas are denuded for agriculture itself. Take for example potato cultivation in the hill country that had not only removed tree cover but had also affected the soil quality. Introducing insurance schemes to protect the farmers from climate change related risks has proven difficult due to lack of enthusiasm of farmers. Crop insurance lacks wide acceptance among farmers in Sri Lanka, according to Mohamed and Garforth.
Farmers’ decisions to adapt depend on the constraints to adapt and their perceptions of climate change and applicability of adaptation methods at farm level. Understanding this is vital to developing adaptation strategies.
According to Mohamed and Garforth, inability of natural systems to adapt to the rate and magnitude of climate change and external factors such as economic constraints and technological backwardness are major obstacles to implementing climate change adaptation. In the Sri Lankan setting, lack of understanding on climate change, behavioural, social and cultural constraints are also barriers to introducing adaptive methodology. Lack of conducive socio-economic conditions such as assets, wealth and livelihood security, vital for decision-making can be major obstacles for climate change adaptation.
Most Sri Lankan farmers lack the financial means to engage in rainwater harvesting although such an adaptive method could have helped them to become more resilient to climate change. Traditional Sri Lankan farmers are often reluctant to change their traditional farming techniques and are often pessimistic about the effectiveness of adaptive techniques. The reason maybe lack of access to climate information such as weather forecasts and technological backwardness.
This goes to show that all these obstacles are inter-related and should be dealt with in parallel, in order to encourage adaptive techniques. Lack of policy intervention and lack of enthusiasm on the part of farmers to abide by sustainable policy is another impediment. But grassroots level adaptation can only go so far. Lack of governance structures, existing structures de-prioritizing climate change issues and not integrating climate change into development planning and implementation impedes climate change adaptation at institutional level.
Source :08/10/2016 The Nation http://nation.lk/online/2016/10/08/climate-change-and-its-effect-on-agriculture.html
Sri Lanka focusing on Green Sustainable Development
Sri Lanka is focusing on green sustainable development as envisaged in the Maithri Palanayak Election Manifesto, said Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in Parliament yesterday.
He said the government had already approved a Sustainable Development Council Bill and the same has been referred to Provincial Councils for their observations. He added that following their observations, the government could debate on it and pass the bill in Parliament, adding that following the bill being passed, the Sustainable Development Minister could come up with new plans for the future.
He made these observations moving the Ratification of the Paris Agreement on the United Nation’s Framework Convention on Climate Change adopted in New York on May 09, 1992.
He said that he was happy that Parliamentarians take a keen interest on the matter and he should also explain as to why a change in Parliamentary business is needed to bring this forward.
“Global Climate Change has captured our attention during the last few decades. The United Nations adopted the framework at the Convention on Climate Change in 1992. But the problem was that the countries could not agree to the steps to be taken. We can see how long it had taken for global countries to come into an agreement. The problem was that, developed countries did not need to control the emission as they thought their own development process would be affected, Premier Wickremesinghe said. “We are well aware that during the last two centuries, the the industrial revolution, the rapid development of the world economies, the World War 11, use of atomic weapons, the test on nuclear weapons, etc. have made a significant impact on the Global Climate Change. Therefore,concerning the Climate Change, the expected 1.5 to 2 Celsius degree increase is getting exceeded. As I told you earlier, the waters of the Mahaweli river could get affected, while tea cultivation too could be affected. Due to this reason, there had been many meetings held, while last was in Copenhagen which also ended without reaching any agreement despite the efforts made as many countries were looking at their own interest.”
He said that it was possible for a country to develop fast, while controlling its emissions. “We are happy that Europe and Japan took the lead on these matters. However, the Paris Climate Talks last year reached a decision. I won’t say that I was 100 percent satisfied with it, but it was a great leap forward. Now the process of ratification has commenced. For ratification requires fifty five percent of the countries with 55 percent of the global emission to ratify the agreement for it to come into force. Although many countries have agreed to it, there are still issues in some of the western countries and also in some of the Asian development economies. While they agree to control emissions, these are major issues coming up when they face the forthcoming elections in western countries this year and next year,” Premier Wickremesinghe said.
He said in this background, it gave us great encouragement that the President of the United States of America and the President of China agreed to ratify the agreement prior to the G 20 Meeting. “Following it, many countries and parliaments have decided to go ahead to ratify the agreement. Sri Lanka is concerned that President Maithripala Sirisena’s manifesto agreed to take all necessary measures to protect the environment. The President has taken over the Environmental Ministry and had taken many measures to protect the environment. So, we have a great responsibility to ratify this agreement. Sri Lanka has the ambition for rapid development, however it should be a green development.
The government has already approved a Sustainable Development Council Bill. It has been sent to the Provincial Councils. I have asked the Provincial Council Minister to expedite the process so that we could debate it and pass it here. Later, we could take other necessary measures. In this background, we have to ratify it quickly, by ensuring that at least by the time the UN General Assembly meets, there would be ample ratifications at the November meeting this year by the time this agreement would come into force. We had discussed this matter with President Maithripala Sirisena. We felt that Parliament should ratify this agreement before President Maithripala Sirisena’s visit to New York for the General Assembly in November. This is the last week that we could sit before the President’s visit to New York”, Premier Wickremesinghe said. “So we moved this agreement.”
Source :10/09/2016 Daily News http://epaper.dailynews.lk/art.asp?id=2016/09/10/pg10_0&pt=p&h=
Sitting In The hotseat
Sri Lanka’s position paper on Climate Change given at the COP21 in Paris stated : “We are aware that the optimum operating temperature of chlorophyll is at 37 deg C. In a warming world where temperatures will soar well above that, food production will be severely impacted. We would request the IPCC to address responses to this phenomenon”.
This statement is now being vindicated by the temperature profiles that we are seeing over the planet. July 2016 was the warmest on record. Thankfully the bursts of extreme temperature are restricted to short episodic events, but the trend is that these events will become more commonplace in both frequency and duration. Heat-waves will become a disturbing phenomena that leaves little room for adaptation.
Why are heat waves so dangerous? It is because extreme temperatures experienced in heat waves often exceed the threshold for enzymatic activity. In humans this phenomenon leads to heat stress results in death. The same pattern follows for plants and animals. But I a warming world, long before thermal collapse, we would have succumbed to hunger.
All of agriculture depends on the good growth of plants, all plants rely on their chlorophyll to grow and produce. Chlorophyll is a molecule that functions to an optimum at about 37degrees, above that temperature, its performance falls. In heat waves often exceeding 38 degrees plant productivity will impact photosynthetic productivity and there will be a yield drop (fig1).
The danger to agricultural production is further exasperated by the reliance on chemical farming with so-called ‘high yield ‘ crops of the so called ‘Green Revolution’. These crops have been bred by reducing the plant’s maintenance biomass (leaves and roots) in exchange for crop biomass (seeds or fruit). The reduction of the plant’s natural defenses being made possible by the use of chemical fertilizers and toxins (fig 2). But in a high temperature situation when chlorophyll is functioning sub-optimally such reductions in leaf volume will bring serious crop losses.
Chemical fertilizers are produced using large amounts of energy, usually fossil energy. The creation of this fossil energy results in the discharge of huge volumes of Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere. This, in addition to the fossil carbon footprint of agro toxins and fossil fuel use adds greatly to global warming which in turn creates the dangerous heat waves around the planet and finally affects the farmer through increased heat stress on the crop.
What are the ways out? One would be to look for plants that have a wide heat stress tolerance; another will be to design future agroecosystems that can use the heat reducing mechanisms of ecosystems to respond to temperature raises.
However one urgent national needed to deal with climate change is to begin mapping out high risk areas in the future and warm farmers in those areas of the steps they should take to adapt to the oncoming changes. Probability maps need to be constructed for temperature, rainfall intensity, wind intensity and salt-water intrusion.
The current rush in high rise construction needs to be critically examined under such a scenario. Recent studies in the US conform that air conditioning is a major contributor to Climate Change because of the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). HFC’s are 3830 more powerful than Carbon Dioxide as a Greenhouse Gas. The Fossil Carbon cost in generating the energy of such air conditioning has not been addressed. Nor has the contribution of Carbon Dioxide in making cement which works out that cement is sixteen times more powerful, weight for weight, as petroleum is in producing Greenhouse Gasses.
The tragedy in Sri Lanka is that while such statements are made and when even the President promised a fossil free path to development, the country is being carved out to be parceled out to ‘ industrial developers’ with no limits on the percentage of impervious surfaces that can be allowed and who are set to increase Sri Lanka’s Carbon Footprint exponentially with massive urban infrastructure based on concrete and air conditioning. This unreported and unchecked growth of Carbon Dioxide outpouring will increase our Carbon footprint and with each rise in our carbon footprint we ensure the inevitability of a heat stressed future that will place all of us on a hot seat to disaster !
Source : 22/08/2016 Colombo Telegraph https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/sitting-in-the-hotseat/
Promoting Biogas among Local Technical Officers for Greener and Sustainable…
Promoting Biogas among Local Technical Officers for Greener and Sustainable Construction Efforts
Janathakshan Gte Ltd and People in Need, Cz conducted a biogas awareness and promotional workshop on renewable energy, biogas and waste management for 65 technical officers recently at the Western Province Waste Management Authority. The technical officers belonged to local authorities in Western Province and are those in-charge of construction. The workshop was conducted under the EU-funded SWITCH Asia initiative on “Up-scaling Biogas Technology for Sustainable Development and Mitigating Climate Change in Sri Lanka”.
The workshop focused on the importance of addressing the Food, Energy and Environment or FEE crises, the impact of increased personal consumption against the decreasing amount of natural resources and the availability of biogas technology as an alternative to a civilisation heavily dependent on fossil fuels.
“Biogas technology used to be popular a few decades back but with a different intent of when there was less access to electricity. However, priorities have changed today and we have shifted from gaining access to electricity to trying to manage waste in limited land area.With this training designed for construction officers in biogas units we hope that the units constructed at local authority level will be doneat higher quality standards,” said Project Manager DamithaSamarakoon.
The Project’s objectives includes creating partnerships in the five select project areas in order to not only ensure sustainability of the project following the project period but also to empower local authorities in the promotion of biogas in their localities.
“It’s important for us to start a large scale project on managing waste in Western Province. We should be able to recycle at least 30% of the degradable waste collected given that 60% of waste is already degradable especially if segregated at disposal,” said Waste Management Authority Director NalinManapperuma.
Adding to his statement was Waste Management Authority Chairman RuviniNadeeshaDharmasiri who believed that it was important “we switch to technologies such as biogas in order to recycle without making more use of existing water resources.”
The project is focused on up-scaling biogas technologies for sustainable development, responsible tourism, economic growth contributing to poverty reduction and climate change mitigation in Sri Lanka. The project targets tourism Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), households and public authorities in the country while building the technical capacity of manufacture and construction SMEs in biogas technologies. The EU SWITCH-Asia initiative assists tourism SMEs and households benefit from sustainable solid waste management and cost savings through energy and resource efficiency. Tourism SMEs adopting “green” technology will also increase their marketing potential and gain the access to “green finances” provided by micro-finance institutions.
Source:08/08/2016 Lanka Business online http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/promoting-biogas-among-local-technical-officers-for-greener-and-sustainable-construction-efforts/
Urban landscaping with root balled trees a green-wash?
Any national level project focusing environmental improvements through tree plantation should be based on increasing the total tree cover of the country at national level rather than shifting trees from one place to another as currently practiced through root balling methods for our urban landscaping programs. This root balling process also damages the environment of the original location as well, because of disturbance to other plants around it during balling operation. Also the root balled trees are very expensive when compared with the maintenance cost of a small plant to achieve the same height in a nursery.
Also the survival rate of root balled trees is also very low because of difficulty in adapting to new environment.Even newly planted trees have to be maintained at for least for six months to establish its roots to the new environment. This is very difficult task for root balled big trees because they are accustomed to original environment for long time. This is also a very expensive operation for plantation on a large scale like avenue planting in urban landscaping projects. However, this is not so for small plants about 2-3 ft. height grown in nurseries.
Another issue is the sustainability of newly planted trees. If someone takes interest of evaluating the sustainability rate of trees planted in these so called Tree Planting Campaigns inaugurated by politicians you can understand what I am trying to convey. I am sure it is less than 10% because of lack of maintenance after the inauguration. Maintenance should be done by regular watering and fertilizing at least for three months. Otherwise those inaugurations are simply Green Washing programs cheating ourselves.
I think above facts should be taken into consideration in planting trees in urban landscaping programs now in progress in Colombo City. Otherwise it could be a green-wash similar to whitewash.
Foliage planted in front of Temple Trees is a good example of such waste. My layman’s view is that plants grown in nurseries should be promoted for national level projects.
It is only a matter of maintaining those plants for some time until it grows to a safe height beyond which it is self-sustaining. It will help small scale nursery owners too.
Perhaps experts will shed light on this issue?
source :The Island 2016/08/06 http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=149892
Smallholder Farmers Vulnerable To Climate Change
Sri Lanka and its people are feeling impacts of climate change. With changes in rain intensity, floods and with slow onset impacts of climate change such as droughts, as well as increased temperature levels, and impacts of scarcity of water, or losses due to too much water from floods, we feel the daily impacts of climate change.
These impacts increase already existing vulnerabilities, making those communities already impacts due to social and economic hardships to experience additional burdens. A community that is feeling these impacts is the small holder farmers whose hardships have worsened due increased frequency of flood and droughts. One such example are the farmers living in the Dry Zone of the country.
Impacts on Smallholder Farmers
The variability of the north-east monsoon which supports agriculture in the Dry Zone is evident through the increased number of high rainfall events followed by longer dry spells. Further, rainfall modelling indicate that large areas of the Dry Zone will receive less rainfall in the medium term. These impacts have direct consequences on the Dry Zone farmers. They are ridden with hardships due to lack of water, and the impacts increasing the scarcity creates additional pressure on Dry Zone agricultural households whose lives are already circumscribed by poverty, low incomes, and recovering from three decades of conflict.
The farmers suffer from threats to food security, health and decent livelihood. This is due to decreasing yields in farm fields due to decreased storage capacity, decreased availability of year-round safe drinking water due to longer drought, declining water quality and lack of adequate water storage, as well as increased crop losses and damage to livelihood and assets from severe impacts of climate change.
In order to address these issues, there is need to set up village irrigation systems such as small reservoirs to provide necessary water to small holder famers. In providing water resources, one needs to focus as a priority on small holder farmers who are poorer and more vulnerable than their Dry Zone counterparts who have access to major irrigation. In the case of a delay in monsoon or heavy rainfall during the sowing or harvesting period, there is risk for the entire cropping season to be damaged. And for farmers who cultivate under village irrigation systems, the crop from the Maha Season (NEM) is often their main source of income and household food. And in the event of crop damage, these farmers would be losing their main source of income for the year.
The way to address the risk of lacking sufficient water for agriculture would be to look into options of adaptive measures. This could be done through adaptation actions taken in river basins, and working towards providing smallholder farmers living in the river basins water through improved irrigation.
Actions need to be taken to enhance the lives and livelihoods of the smallholder farmers in the Dry Zone whose economic and social vulnerability are increased due to climate impacts on water and food security. Attention needs to be given to addressing these issues of vulnerable communities suffering from extreme weather events, and slow onset impacts of climate change.
Climate Finance for Sri Lanka
In order to address the situation in which the farmers of the Dry Zone live, actions on adaptation need to be taken. And to do this, there needs to be finance allocations for such actions. In brief, there is a need for climate finance in Sri Lanka, and specifically for adaptation based activities in the agricultural sector.
There remain options for climate finance for developing countries such as the Green Climate Fund (GCF), which was set up as an entity under the financial mechanism of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The GCF provides funding through direct access to developing countries for projects, programmes, policies and other activities. The funding allocation is to be provided in a balanced manner, for both mitigation as well as adaptation activities. The GCF also caters to both public as well as private finance, and has A target set at raising 100 billion dollars a year by 2020.
It is important that countries such as Sri Lanka, needing financing for adaptation efforts such as issues highlighted are able to access funding from the GCF. It is also important that the vulnerabilities of those impacted by climate change are identified, and their resilience is build. For this, the country needs a grant based financing mechanism which recognises the vulnerabilities, impacts, and that will set up concrete adaptation actions on the ground for effective and efficient actions creating change and benefiting those vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
Source :25/07/2016 Asian Mirror http://www.asianmirror.lk/opinion/item/17290-smallholder-farmers-vulnerable-to-climate-change