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Sri Lanka gears up to refine climate commitments with Nationally Determined Contributions
View(s):By Tharushi Weerasinghe
With the February 2025 deadline for the latest Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs 3.0) fast approaching, Sri Lanka is gearing up to refine its climate commitments. NDCs, central to the Paris Agreement, are national climate plans detailing how countries will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has mandated that all parties submit their updated NDCs by February to facilitate the compilation and synthesis report ahead of COP30 in Brazil in November 2025.
Sri Lanka first submitted its NDCs in 2015 as Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) and later presented an improved version during the signing of the Paris Agreement. The country formally submitted its first NDCs to the UNFCCC in 2016, followed by an update in 2021. These commitments focus on four key areas: Mitigation, Adaptation, Loss & Damage, and Means of Implementation. They include ambitious goals, such as a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the energy sector and a 10% reduction in other sectors by 2030. Despite contributing less than 0.1% of global GHG emissions, Sri Lanka is determined to play a proactive role in global climate action.
Director of Climate Change Leel Randeni confirmed that Sri Lanka focuses on enhancing its NDCs rather than merely updating them. “Enhancement is better,” Randeni said to the Sunday Times. The NDC action plan and implementation framework, launched in 2023, aim to simplify and streamline targets to improve monitoring and execution. “The biggest issue is that there are many targets, but monitoring is hard. We’ll simplify and focus on two or three solid goals because the current approach hasn’t worked effectively,” Randeni noted.
The enhancement process includes reallocating some goals into other working documents and incorporating key policy measures into adaptation plans. Development partners, including the UNDP, are supporting sector-specific efforts. Currently, funding for NDC implementation is supported through UNFCCC mechanisms such as the Green Climate Fund (GCF) for capacity building and technology and the Adaptation Fund. “The technical bodies of the UNFCCC and other arms like the Adaptation Fund also support us with climate finance,” Randeni explained.
The country’s new NDC framework will prioritise private sector involvement in climate-smart innovations and renewable energy transitions. “Development activities like fossil fuel burning contribute to climate damage, so the responsibility for greening or climate-smart innovations should ideally fall on the private sector too,” Randeni stated. He emphasized the importance of facilitating opportunities for the private sector, particularly in sectors like power generation and transportation, to drive solutions.
Sri Lanka’s restructured NDCs will align with economic-based targets to integrate climate action into national development planning. “We need to incorporate climate action into our development plans because that’s how decision-making happens structurally in this country,” Randeni added. By doing so, the country aims to foster a sustainable, climate-resilient development pathway while making climate finance procurement easier.
Globally, the next generation of NDCs is expected to be more ambitious, reflecting enhanced mitigation targets, increased resilience, and greater transparency. The NDC Partnership has highlighted the need for accelerated implementation, enhanced means of support, and upgraded targets for both 2030 and 2035 to meet these goals. Sri Lanka’s efforts to enhance its NDCs reflect its commitment to these principles and its determination to remain a key player in global climate action.
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