Low Carbon Development (LCD) Strategies in South Asia
Finished Project
Project Duration
0ne years in the 2015 April-2016 March.
Impacts of Climate change are increasingly becoming a factor that hinders the wellbeing of the global community. Anthropogenic carbon emissions are identified as one of the major causes of global warming and climate change. Adoption and dependency on fossil fuels are emphasized as one of the major reasons to the release of significant amounts of Carbon to the atmosphere. Hence, to mitigate these emissions, adoption of more cleaner and low carbon development technologies is imperative. This is where global action is required. Statistically, developed nations are the highest contributors of Carbon emissions. This does not imply that impacts would be confined only to their respective regions but to the whole global atmosphere. Therefore, this issue provides no liberty for both developed and developing nations to not act on finding solutions in mitigating the effects of climate change. This is where global action, agreements and defining roles become ambiguous. However, taken in to consideration the adverse impacts a country should face, taking action at a national level, under a national agenda is easier to decide upon.
Context
Climate change being a global issue, the most vulnerable to its impacts are the more marginalized and poor communities worldwide- especially in developing nations. Adaptation, mitigation and resilience to climate change are the key factors required to build upon to deal with adverse impacts of Climate change through the introduction of appropriate Low carbon development technologies. However, to propagate these technologies , formulation of appropriate Low Carbon Development policies are required to be developed and embedded in national development agendas and planning , with thorough attention on strategies which would not hinder the development process while preserving a sound environment. Development of such a framework should allow financial and technical access for the promotion of solutions. This is where the role of national decision makers and policy makers and advocacy become increasingly important. One of the key targets of this project is to advocate low carbon development strategies and technologies to be included in Climate change policies and action plans in Sri Lanka.
Project Activities
Raising awareness and Discussion on Climate change, UNFCCC agreements on Climate Change –specifically on COP21
A network meeting was organized by IDEA with the intention of raising awareness of IDEA activities and outcomes of COP21 summit held in Paris, 2015 by United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC). This network event also marked the commemoration of 25years of IDEA services. This event was jointly held with the intention of fulfilling objecive of the projects “Promoting pro poor low carbon developments strategies in South Asia” and Evidence Based, Low Carbon, Pro-Poor Advocacy on Sustainable Eco-Village Development (EVD) with the contributions from IDEA. The COP21 awareness and discussion session was chaired by Mr Amerasekera, CEO of IDEA, Mr Leelasena, IDEA director board member and Prof Anoja wickramasinghe, Faculty of Geography, University of Peradeniya.
Mr Amerasekera initiated the session providing a background on Climate Change concerns. Professor Anoja Wickramsinghe gave a historical background on COP agreements and the latest outcomes of COP21 Paris agreements.