August 13, Colombo (LNW): 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 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.
Eeurope too, is going ahead, but is facing its own set of problems which will take a few more years to resolve.
“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.
