Historical development of climate change policies and the Climate Change Secretariat in Sri Lanka

Highlights

• In 25 years, Sri Lanka enhanced the ability to mobilize financing support from international organizations.

• The Climate Change Secretariat (CCS) laid the foundation for Sri Lanka’s institutional capacity development for climate change policies.

• In formulating and implementing climate change policies, experts with extensive international academic background played important roles.

• Wide stakeholder involvement in policy formulation led to relatively effective policy implementation under the CCS.

• Sri Lanka needs to establish its own fund to implement Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) and the National Adaptation Plan.

Abstract

The IPCC, 2014 report found that the roles institutions played in implementing coastal adaptation policies were yet understudied. In particular, limited research was done to examine the evolution of policies and institutional actions in small island nations. Partly to fill this gap, this study traces the historical development of climate change policies in Sri Lanka and the critical roles its main climate change policy institution played in engaging with the public and experts, negotiating with international organizations, and coordinating with other stakeholder agencies. We examine how these intensive institutional efforts began in March 2008, when, in the midst of rising interests in and concerns about global climate change impacts, the Sri Lanka Ministry of Mahaweli Development and Environment (MMD&E) established the Climate Change Secretariat (CCS). In Sri Lanka’s political history, the establishment of the CCS signalled the dawn of the new era, leading to a series of climate change mitigation and adaptation policy actions and improved institutional capacity in the following decade. CCS’s actions in drafting the National Climate Change Policy (NCCP) and implementing various coordinated intergovernmental programs under the policy demonstrated how a small island nation with limited financial and technical capacities could still mobilize domestic experts and international financial support to attain some tangible results. The CCS also followed international movements for public participation by engaging with the public.

Introduction

Studies on institutional mitigation and adaptation responses to climate change have clarified the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of climate change governance (Hewawasam and Matsui, 2018), but, as the IPCC, 2014 report found, the roles institutions played in implementing coastal adaptation were yet understudied (IPCC, 2014: 388-389). In these studies, small developing island nations were portrayed as having weak and vulnerable governance structures (Yamane, 2009), whereas European regions (McInnes, 2006) and American states like California (Bedsworth and Hanak, 2010) were often depicted as having implemented good practices (McInnes, 2006).

Partly because of this research trend, limited research was done to examine the evolution of policies and institutional actions in small island nations. In particular, we do not yet know much about what government institutions in these nations have actually done and improved in mitigating and adapting to climate change. This paper attempts to fill out this gap by examining the historical development of climate change policies in Sri Lanka. It traces active government actions in formulating and implementing climate change policies. In so doing, we attempt to address questions as to what major factors drove government institutions to act; how institutional structures experienced changes; what financial sources these institutions mobilized to fund their actions; and who played influential roles in formulating and implementing policies. We then conclude by reflecting on future policy options.

From 1992 to 2017, the Sri Lankan government issued twelve outstanding documents that are related to climate change policies, including the National Environmental Action Plan (NEAP), National Environment Policy (NEP) in 2003, and Capacity Assessment and Action Plan for Developing Capacity for Compliance with Global Conventions on Biodiversity, Climate Change, and Land Degradation in 2006. We examined these documents. Also, the Ministry of Mahaweli Development and Environment (MMD&E) has made relevant cabinet memoranda public, and we used them to clarify the law-making process for climate change policies from 2008 to 2017. We have reviewed these documents to better trace the evolution of climate change policies with the focus on institutional roles in policy implementation. We also tried to place policy history within a global context by examining information from the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Our research identified three landmark events in the history of Sri Lanka’s climate change policy development: (1) the establishment of the Climate Change Secretariat (CCS) under the Ministry of Mahaweli Development and Environment, (2) the development of the National Climate Change Policy (NCCP) by the CCS, and (3) the further institutional development under the National Climate Change Policy (NCCP). We first discuss the period that led to the establishment of the CCS. In examining the second period we illustrate how the CCS led the formulation of the National Climate Change Policy (NCCP) for the period of 2008-2012. In discussing the third period, we focus on activities that were implemented under the NCCP from 2012 and 2017.