NEWS

Climate Action Network South Asia (CANSA) a coalition of 125 civil society organisations called upon the heads of governments of developing countries to collaborate and coordinate their efforts on climate change adaptation plans and ensure that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) reflect the urgency to address climate impacts at the conclusion of a 2 day conference organized in Colombo and co-hosted by Janathakshan and Asia-Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN) today.

Acknowledging that climate change is the greatest humanitarian, environmental and security threat facing the world today, government and non-governmental participants from Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives and Bhutan stressed upon the need for bottom-up, inclusive, responsive and flexible approach towards adaptation planning while ensuring that the Sustainable Development goals converge with Climate change goals.

In September 2015 government leaders will gather in New York to agree upon a universal set of goals to tackle global challenges like poverty, inequality, discrimination, corruption and injustice of all kinds. Later in December 2015 world leaders will gather again in Paris to forge a global climate agreement. Taken together, this year’s two big summits and their outcomes will go a long way in ensuring a sustainable and safe future for the planet.

“Pakistan like India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh is reeling under the worst impacts of climate change. Clearly, climate change knows no borders and now more than ever it is critical that our leaders come together to share best practices for climate change adaptation and set the region on the path of sustainable development,” said Mr. Malik Muhammad Uzair Khan, Member of Parliament from Pakistan. “We need to increase public awareness on sustainable development goals and climate change for long term planning and implementation. We must own SDG’s as our national goals in order to ensure their implementation.” he added.

“It is important that climate change science is demystified to raise public awareness and communities are educated and empowered on climate change adaptation measures. Srilanka has recently demonstrated that people power is mightier than political power, and empowering our people will help not only to build their resilience but also choosing the sustainable path for development” said Ashoka Abhaygunavardhne, Advisor to Ministry of Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Energy said in his inaugural address earlier.

Climate Action Network South Asia (CANSA) is a pan-Asia network of  125 NGOs working to promote government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels.

This article was first published on the Daily Nation on 26 February 2015: http://dailynation.lk/south-asian-nations-collaborate-ensure-climate-change-goals-converge-sustainable-development-goals-cansa/