Climate Mitigation, Sustainable Development & Good Governance 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Working Group III report of the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) assesses research on the scientific, technological, environmental, economic and social aspects related to mitigation of climate change. The findings of this report provide key information on the climate change impacts on the planet, as well as information on pathways for mitigation action; synergies between climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, and risk management; as well as well finance flows for climate action, and international cooperation. 

Technical Dialogue on Accessing and Scaling Up Climate and Disaster Risk Finance for Sri Lanka

On May 5th, 2022, SLYCAN Trust hosted an initial technical dialogue on accessing and scaling up climate and disaster risk finance for Sri Lanka and engage key stakeholders from the public and private finance sector.

Youth and Climate Change: Making a difference

Climate change is one of the key challenges that has united the countries around the globe. With impacts that affect everyone in the world, it is not a question for one group of society, but all living on the planet. According to the World Youth Report: Youth and Climate Change, addressing and adjusting to the changes of climate change is one of the “defining features of the future of today’s youth”.

World Summit Climate and Territories

World Summit Climate & Territories (WSCT) is an important event in the global agenda for climate change in 2015. It is the main gathering of the subnational and local governments and other non-State actors in the discussions to COP21 in Paris.

Update on the Paris Committee on Capacity Building

In light of the 23rd Conference of Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) taking place in Bonn, Germany, the UNFCCC Secretariat organised a session in order to provide an update on the work of the Paris Committee on Capacity Building and the implementation of its rolling workplan 2017-2019. The session would be followed by further informal sessions and discussions during the duration of COP23.

UN Calls for a Shift in Dietary Patterns towards Meat and Dairy-less Products

திட்டத்திலிருந்து செயற்பாடு; உலக சவால்களுக்கு முகம்கொடுத்தலில்

வெற்றியை அடைவதற்கு உலக சவால்களை ,முகம்கொடுத்து அதற்கான தீர்வுகளை அபிவிருத்தி செய்து அதில் வெற்றியை அடைவதற்கு இளைஞர்களின் பங்களிப்பு மிகவும் முக்கியமானதாகும்.

සමුද්ර තීරයේ දියුණුවට- ශ්රි ලංකාවේ කඩොලාන ප්රතිස්ථාපානය

නිවර්තන කලාපීය රටවල ගොඩබිම සහ මුහුද අතර භූමියේ අති විශේෂ පරිසර පද්ධතියක් තිබේ. ඒ වෙන කිසිවක් නොව කඩොලාන වනාන්තරයි. ලවණ මිශ්ර ජලයට අනුවර්තනය වෙමින් තෙත්බිම්වල හොදින් වැඩෙන කඩොලාන ශාක ශ්රි ලංකාව ඇතුළු ලෝකයේ රටවල් 118ක සමුද්ර තීරයන් සොබාමත් කරයි

Thriving Coastlines: Mangrove Restoration in Sri Lanka

On the border between land and sea, a unique ecosystem covers tropical and subtropical regions around the world: Mangrove forests. Mangroves are well adapted to saline water and the tides, and they thrive along the coastlines of over 118 countries, including Sri Lanka. They offer a wide variety of ecosystem services, provide a sheltered habitat for many species of animals, and are vital allies in the fight against climate change.

The Value of Mangroves: Ecological Services of Mangroves in Sri Lanka

Mangroves are a valuable ecological and economic resource to Sri Lanka. According to the Forest Department, Sri Lanka is home to over 20 mangrove species which extend over an area of 15,670 hectares. However, mangroves represent only 0.2% of the total forest cover.

The Stakeholder Consultation Workshop on Provincial Adaptation Plans and Sri Lanka's Third National Communication on Climate Change for the Southern Province

The Third National Communication (TNC) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is presently being developed by the Ministry of Maheweli Development and Environment. The TNC is submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat as part of the reporting mechanism on the actions taken by Sri Lanka to address the climate change impacts.

Surging Oceans: The Acceleration of Global Sea Level Rise

After 3.000 years of largely unchanged global mean sea levels (GMSL), the oceans have begun to rise from the 20th century onward, encroaching higher and higher onto the coastlines of continents and islands and threating the livelihoods of millions (if not billions) of people. The reason for this is twofold and directly connected to the global warming caused by increasing greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere: the water warms up and expands (thermal expansion), and the higher temperatures cause glaciers and ice shelves (primarily in Greenland and Antarctica) to melt.

Shipping Goes Green: Countries Pledge to Halve Shipping Emissions by 2050

Ships move over 80% of global trade, which equals billions of tonnes of goods per year. Companies around the world employ a total of more than 90,000 merchant ships, including immense container ships, the largest moving things on earth.

Reduction of Meat Consumption for Climate Change Mitigatigation

Pope Francis Invokes a Moral Framework for Climate Change Negotiations

Pope Francis invoked a new argument for collaboration between science and religion to combat human induced climate change, through the much awaited encyclical on the environment, which was released on June 18. The encyclical was issued at a crucial juncture, six months away from the 21stConference of Parties of the UNFCCC to be held in Paris which is aimed at creating a new agreement on climate change.

Overdependence on fossil fuel: An urgent call for green initiatives

Petrol’ has been the talk of the town since early November. The daily lives of the public have been disrupted with the rising traffic congestions and transportation issues. Vehicles have been queuing up at petrol stations fearing a petrol shortage since last Friday, creating traffic jams on the streets of Colombo, amidst the heavy showers.

Nature in Court: Environmental Protection Through Legal Rights

Does Nature have legal rights, and if so, what are they? How can they be formalised and claimed? And who should be able to enforce them? The theoretical debate about the rights of Nature has engaged philosophers, environmentalists, and lawyers for decades: now, it has reached the courtrooms and lawmakers of the world in a series of landmark decisions.

Multi-actor Partnership on Climate Change and Disaster Risk Finance in the InsuResilience Global Partnership - Field visit to Trincomalee

Climate change impacts increasingly undermine progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and overcoming poverty reduction in vulnerable developing countries while measures to build resilience (and approaches to finance them) brings various benefits to the people who are highly vulnerable to those climate impacts. The project on Multi-actor Partnership on Climate Change and Disaster Risk Finance mainly focuses on the national-level engagement, capacity development and the establishment of multi-actor partnerships on the climate risk finance in countries like Laos, Sri Lanka, Malawi, Madagascar, Senegal, Philippines, and the Caribbean.

Moving Towards Renewable and Sustainable Energy in Sri Lanka

During the Presidential election 2015, president Maithripala Sirisena announced his manifesto under the theme of compassionate Maithri governance, a stable country”. In the chapter 10 of the aforesaid, he promised to meet the basic energy needs through renewable energy. The manifesto also included among others protecting against rising of imported fuel prices, inclusion of environmental factors in decision making, building biomass power plants and benefiting rural communities. It also mentions removing subsidies for fossil fuel and supporting renewable energy with the President’s policy statements emphasizing the obtaining of long term concessionary loans for clean energy from global funds.

Mitigation and Forests: Not Two Mutually Exclusive Words

Forests have long been identified as one of the most important net carbon sinks that our planet possesses, as they absorb CO2 from the atmosphere, sequestering it in the biomass of trees and as soil carbon. As climate change is now an undisputed reality, the role that forests can play in mitigating the impacts of climate change are becoming ever more crucial. As an island nation blessed with small but significant tracts of tropical rainforest, Sri Lanka is an ideal location to study how land use changes and forest deforestation and degradation impact a forest’s capacity to act as a carbon sink. By conserving and managing the forests that remain, and reforesting areas which have been degraded, Sri Lanka can also add its own lion’s share to the global battle against climate change.

Meatless Monday Sri Lanka in 2017

Meatless Monday Sri Lanka initiated in 2015 and has since grown leaps and bounds with the expansion of its outreach both on a national and international scale. 2017 has been a great year for Meatless Monday Sri Lanka, with the project reaching out to various like-minded organisations in diverse collaborations and partnerships to organise various events and campaigns with the aim of promoting meatless and humane lifestyles in Sri Lanka.

කාබන් උරා බොන කඩොලාන පද්ධති

සමතුලිත පරිසරයක් තුළින් ජීවින්ට බොහෝ වාසි අත්වෙයි. අප අවට ඇති පරිසරයේ බොහෝ ශාඛ සම්බන්ධයෙන් නොයෙකුත් අවධානයන් යොමු වුවද සුශේෂී ශාක වර්ග ඔස්සේ පරිසරයට ලැබෙන දායකත්වය සම්බන්ධයෙන් ඇතමෙක්ට ඇත්තේ අල්ප දැනුමකි.

කන්දකුලියෙන් කඩොලාන පැල 1500ක් මිහිකතට එක්වෙයි

දේශගුණ විපර්යාසවලට මුහුණ දීම සදහා මුළු ලෝකයම විවිධ උප්‍රකම සොයමින් සිටියි. දිනෙන් දින ඉහළ යන ගෝලීය උෂ්ණත්වයට හරිතාගාර වායු විමෝචනය සෘජුව බලපෑම් ඇති කරයි. වායුගෝලයේ කාබන්ඩයොක්සයිඩ් ප්‍රතිශතය ඉහළයෑම ස්වභාවිකව පාලනය කර ගැනීම හැර වෙනත් විකල්ප සෙවීම දුෂ්කර වී තිබේ.

Impacts of Salinisation on Agricultural Livelihoods

Agriculture is one of the main sectors impacted by the impacts of climate change and its effects are very much felt due to the dependency on the natural resources that this livelihood has. Among the impacts on the agriculture sector are the impacts of the slow onset events of climate change.

How Global Warming will Change the World: The IPCC's Special Report on 1.5 Degrees

This week in Incheon, the IPCC will finalize and release its most comprehensive and critical report on climate change for years to come. Its findings will show the profound impacts on human life and the decisive actions necessary to keep global temperature rise below 2 or 1.5 degrees Celsius. If the world as we know it is to survive climate change, this report is required reading for everyone.

ගෝලීය අභියෝගවලට විසදුම් සොයන දේශගුණ විපර්යාස තරුණ සැසිය

තාරුණ්‍යයේ මැදිහත්වීම ඔස්සේ ගෝලීය අභියෝගතාහදුනාගනිමින් ඊට සාර්ථක විසදුම් කරා ළගාවන දේශගුණ විපර්යාස පිළිබද තරුණ සංසදයේ දෙවැනිඅදියර කොළඹ ව්‍යාපාර කළමණාකරන පාසලේදී පසුගිය 29 වැනිදා පැවැත්විණි.පරිසර, බලශක්ති, සෞඛ්‍ය සහ දරිද්‍රතාව ඇතුළුගෝලීය අභියෝග ජයගැනීම සදහා තාරුණ්‍ය ඵලදායී ලෙස යොදා ගැනීම සහ ඊට අවශ්‍යය කාර්යක්ෂමහැකියාවන් වැඩිදියුණු කිරීමේ අරමුණ ඇතිව මෙම සැසිය ස්ලැයිකැන් භාරය සංවිධානය කර තිබිණි.

“Going vegan is the least and the best we can all do for ourselves, for others and for the planet! It is the future!” ~Sue Iruge.

Sue Iruge who is a long-time vegan is the winner of our Meatless Monday social media competition held on the 9th of June,2017. She spoke to us on why she became a vegan, and why she thinks that it is important not to consume meat based products.

Gender Action Plan Adopted at COP23

On the 14th of November, the first ever Gender Action Plan to the UNFCCC was adopted by Parties at the 23rd Conference of Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), making COP23 a landmark year in terms of gender-related mandates under the UNFCCC processes.

From Plans to Action: Addressing Global Challenges

Youth engagement in developing solutions to address global challenges is a vital component in achieving success. Addressing this need, stage II of the Youth Forum on Climate Change focused on providing capacity building and support on how youth could effectively engage in developing solutions to global challenges such as environment, energy, education, poverty, health.

Financing the Future: Green Climate Fund Developments

Two years after the UN Climate Change Conference that resulted in the historic Paris Agreement, French President Emmanuel Macron invited international leaders and committed citizens back to the city. At the One Planet Summit on December 12th, they addressed the urgency of taking collective action against climate change and the means of financing this action.

Facilitating the Implementation of Sri Lanka's National Adaptation Plan

A workshop organised by Southern Voices on Adaptation, SLYCAN Trust, Janathakshan (GTE) Ltd, and CANSA Sri Lanka, was held on the 18th of August at Hotel Renuka, for the purpose of discussing on how to facilitate transparent and inclusive implementation of Sri Lanka’s National Adaptation Plan. ‍

Developing Guidelines for Coral Reef Restoration in Sri Lanka

2nd multi-stakeholder consultation on developing guidelines for coral reef restoration in Sri Lanka was organized by Marine Environment Protection Authority of Sri Lanka in collaboration with SLYCAN Trust on 6th August 2019.

காலநிலை மாற்ற தொடர்பாடலில் தேசிய தந்திரோபாயம் ஒன்றை உருவாக்குதல்

மகாவலி அபிவிருத்தி மற்றும் சூழல் அமைச்சின் காலநிலை மாற்ற செயலகம்,யூ.என்.டி.பி. மூன்றாவது தேசியதொடர்பாடல் அமையம் ஆகியவை இணைந்து பங்குதாரர் செயலமர்வொன்று நடத்தப்பட்டது.

Developing a National Strategy on Climate Change Communication

A stakeholder workshop was organised today at Ministry of Mahaweli Development and Environment led by the Climate Change Secretariat of Sri Lanka, the UNDP and the Third National Communication Consortium.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ කොරල් පර ප්‍රතිසංස්කරණය සදහා මාර්ගෝපදේශ සැකසෙයි.

ශ්‍රි ලංකාවේ කොරල් පර ප්‍රතිසංස්කරණය සඳහා මාර්ගෝපදේශ සකස් කෙරෙන නියෝජිත උපදේශන හමුවේ දෙවැන්න නාරාහේන්පිට සමුද්‍රීය පරිසර ආරක්ෂණ අධිකාරියේදී පසුගිය 06 වැනිදා පැවැත්විණි. සමුද්‍රීය පරිසර ආරක්ෂණ අධිකාරිය (MEPA) ස්ලයිකැන් භාරය (SLYCAN trust) සමග එක්ව මෙම හමුව සංවිධානය කර තිබිණි.

දේශගුණ විපර්යාස සන්නිවේදනය ශක්තිමත් කිරීමේ රාජ්‍ය වැඩමුළුවක්

දේශගුණ විපර්යාස සන්නිවේදනය කිරීම සදහා ජාතික සන්නිවේදන ක්රමෝපායක් සකස් කිරීමේ වැඩපිළිවෙල යටතේ රාජ්ය ආයතනවල පවතින සන්නිවේදන කියාව ශක්තිමත් කිරීමේ විශේෂ වැඩමුළුවක් පරිසර අමාත්යංශ ශ්රවණාගාරයේදී අද (30)දින පැවැත්විණි.

Colombo's Urban Wetlands: On Becoming and Staying a Ramsar Wetland City

The city of Colombo is the capital of Sri Lanka and its economic, political, and cultural focal point. Since October 2018, it is also South Asia's only Wetland City under the Ramsar Convention. With concerted efforts from government, communities, and all affected stakeholders, this opens the way for Colombo to become a model for urban wetland conservation and benefit from the many ecosystem services they offer.

Climate Literacy in Sri Lanka’s Development Pathway

With the electoral manifesto of current president Maithripala Sirisena, which promised the formulation of a national policy that could face modern ecological challenges, the country’s drive towards sustainable development was instated. Further policy, action and activities carried out under the Maithripala regime since 2015, consolidated the nation’s position on sustainability and ecological awareness. Importantly, the Government’s vision for a ‘sustainable era’ was launched on 2 January targeting the achievement of 2030 sustainable development goals according to the declared objective of the Government on poverty elimination.

දේශගුණික විපර්යාස ආරක්ෂාවට තර්ජනයක් - එක්සත් ජාතින්ගේ ආරක්ෂක කවුන්සලය

දේශගුණික විපර්යාස ආරක්ෂාවට තර්ජනයක් බව එක්සත් ජාතින්ගේ ආරක්ෂක කවුන්සලයේදී පසුගියදා ප්රකාශයට පත්වී ඇත. ජර්මන් විදේශ කටයුතු අමාත්ය හෙයිකො මාස් පසුගියආරක්ෂක කවුන්සලයේදී මේ බව අවධාරණය කර තිබේ.ලෝක සාමය සම්බන්ධ ආරක්ෂක කවුන්සල සැසිවාරයටඑක්වෙමින් අමාත්‍ය හෙයිකො මාස් මේ බව පෙන්වා දී ඇත.

Building Resilience through Economic Diversification

With global attention focused on the implementation of adaptation activities to address the impacts of climate change and efforts towards climate-resilient development, economic diversification has been viewed as a means of a country’s drive towards sustainable economic growth and stability. It is defined as the process wherein a growing range of economic outputs is produced.

Building Permanent Resilience: An Interview with Dr. Youssef Nassef

Dr. Youssef Nassef, the Director of the Adaptation Programme at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change secretariat, recently launched the Resilience Frontiers Initiative (RFI)to achieve permanent resilience beyond 2030. Harnessing the power of paradigm-shifting frontier technologies and emerging social trends, this Initiative identifies eight transformative pathways that will steer the world towards this future.

Blue-Green Protectors: Mangrove Restoration in Sri Lanka

On the border between land and sea, a unique ecosystem covers tropical and subtropical regions around the world: Mangrove forests. Mangroves are well adapted to saline water and the tides, and they thrive along the coastlines of over 118 countries, including Sri Lanka. They offer a wide variety of ecosystem services, provide a sheltered habitat for many species of animals, and are vital allies in the fight against climate change.

Biodiversity and Climate Change in Sri Lanka: Where Does the Law Stand?

Sri Lanka, being a biodiversity hotspot, has taken legislative steps to conserve its various habitats and ecosystems. However, the country’s biodiversity is also threatened by the adverse impacts of climate change.

“Being meatless is important for personal as well as environmental benefits” - Chef Tora, Vegan Week 2017

Chef Tora from Sweden has arrived in Sri Lanka for the Vegan Week 2017 organised by Galle Face Hotel, Colombo together with SLYCAN Trust and Meatless Monday Sri Lanka. Tora spoke today with the SLYCAN Trust team about her experiences as a food and meal scientist, giving us an insight into her meatless and healthy lifestyle.

Addressing Climate-Related Migration in Sri Lanka

Climate change greatly influences the patterns of human mobility in Sri Lanka. It exacerbates existing economic, demographic, social, and environmental drivers of migration and contributes to more frequent and intense disasters and displacement.

Accessing Climate Finance and Gender Sensitive Climate Action

Climate change renders women disproportionately vulnerable to its impacts as a result of persisting gender norms and discrimination. This is evidenced in terms of the impacts of climate change affecting scarcity of water, food security, disaster situations and fuel shortage, thereby having a drastic impact on women’s human rights as well as on gender equality. Moreover, the notion of women’s rights and equality is affected by the processes that seek solutions to address climate change. The manner in which the climate response processes are formulated in terms of inclusion and participation of women, as well the manner in which they are implemented on the ground-level will determine the iteration of women’s rights while also ensuring that the solutions themselves are holistic.