Sri Lanka ready to mobilise green energy investments: Ruwan

SRI Lanka is to mobilise green energy investments in the energy sector and invites local and foreign direct investments for that purpose, Senior Advisor to the President on Climate Change Ruwan Wijewardene said.

He stated this while delivering the opening speech of the Sri Lanka Clean Energy Summit 2023 held at Kingsbury Hotel, Colombo on Tuesday.

This Summit was a great opportunity for investors to find and identify green energy investment opportunities in Sri Lanka’s energy sector and the private sector is crucial in developing and deploying renewable energy technology, he said.

He also mentioned that Sri Lanka is a very rare example of a country that has achieved higher human development while managing CO2 emissions well below the Paris Agreement.

Also he said that as a party to the Paris Agreement, Sri Lanka is also committed in reducing the greenhouse gas emissions by 14.5% by 2030. Correspondingly, the country is further committed to achieve a 70% share of renewable energy in electricity requirements by 2030, Carbon neutrality by 2050 in electricity generation and no further capacity addition of unabated coal power generation.

Advisor to the President on Climate Change Erik Solheim said that it is the vision of President Ranil Wickremesinghe to take Sri Lanka out of the crisis in a green space.

Solheim said that the two biggest developing countries China and India are now the two leaders of the Green Revolution while pointing out that Sri Lanka, with such a good relationship with China, as well as India, has enormous opportunity to move towards a green economy. Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera said that his role as the Minister is to facilitate the rapid changes required to keep Sri Lanka globally competitive.

The mentality of most of the state institutions needs to be buried and an innovative mind-set both in management and process must be introduced, the Minister said.

Thus, Minister Wijesekera pointed out the first part of his agenda is to set the institutional framework for this purpose but some people think the sole purpose of the reform agenda is to privatise the Ceylon Electricity Board, but in fact it is much broader. He added that they are setting up the sectorial Government’s framework for a power future breaking free from institutional framework.

Secretary of the Ministry of Environment Dr. Anil Jasinghe while addressing the conference said that it is the Government’s expectation to increase Sri Lanka’s forest cover up to 32%, and that it cannot be done just by conventional methods. For that purpose, Carbon credit concept will be used. He pointed out that the country can earn income by doing so and increase the forest cover.

Minister of Environment Naseer Ahamed, Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Sabry, State Minister of Foreign Affairs Tharaka Balasuriya, State Minister of Investment Promotion Dilum Amunugama,

Central Bank of Sri Lanka Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe, Ceylon Electricity Board General Manager Rohan Seneviratna, Secretary of the Ministry of Environment Dr. Anil Jasinghe, World Bank Senior Energy Specialist Jari Vayrynen, Board of Investment of Sri Lanka Executive Director (Promotions) Prasanjith Wijethilake, Kavin Kandasamy, SEED Ventures Founder and Director Karachi, Faraz Khan and other officials attended this event.