Sandasen MARASINGHE The Daily News

Power and Energy Minister Patali Chamipka Ranawaka yesterday said Sri Lanka is the most carbon efficient country in GDP terms as the amount of Carbon produced here is very much less in every respect.

Minister Chamipka Ranawaka

He made this observation making the keynote address as the Chief Guest at the Clean and Green Energy International Conference at the Grand Ballroom, Galadari Hotel, Colombo. The event was organized by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).

He said he was happy to say that when compared with countries where the per – capita income is more than US$ 2,000, we are the lowest Carbon Emitting country in the world to produce 1US$ per capita in real terms.

ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Therefore, we must be proud that we are the most carbon efficient country in GDP termsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ the minister said.

The minister further said though in the global context, it is an entirely different story. Putting it bluntly, he said we are a civilization sitting on a bubble of fossil fuel, and that bubble is definitely going to burst in the near future.

He also said the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) established in 1988 by the UN has identified the Carbon Budget for the whole century to avoid the disastrous consequences of the environmental calamity which might lead to the Sixth Great Extinction of the living species of the planet.

But as per the recent data available, at the current rates the Carbon Budget will be exhausted by 2030, oil reserves by 2040, gas reserves by 2042 and coal reserves by 2062, which means Doomsday is coming very soon.

Minister Ranawaka further said governments alone cannot find solutions for them. As policy makers, scientists and engineers we must educate our people on the importance of clean and green energy not for our sake, but, also for the sake of future generations to come, as we as human beings have nowhere else to go.

ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Therefore, we all must take urgent and meaningful action to quickly reduce anthropogenic carbon emissions to zeroƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ minister said. ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Therefore, I consider it is a timely and proactive decision for your institution to come up with an idea of having an international conference to deliberate on clean and green energyƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚.

He added it is well known, that Sri Lanka has over 4,000 MW of potential wind power mostly concentrated on the North-West coastal belt. But it is ironical that we can only tap about 260 to 650 MW of this potential energy till 2020 due to technical constraints.

ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-If we are to face this problem, we must focus on the evaluation of data related to the location and amount to overcome the intermittent problem, development of machines on problems related to harmonics, study and analyze the Demand Side Management.