Implementation of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement in Sri Lanka

Decision taken by the Cabinet of Ministers on June 3: damith June 5, 2024

The Paris Agreement, a legally binding international agreement on climate change, was adopted by 196 parties at the 21st Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change held in 2015 (COP21) and Sri Lanka signed the Paris Agreement in 2016. The main objective of the Paris Agreement is to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” and pursue efforts “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.”

According to the provisions of the agreement, the participating states must implement the nationally determined contribution targets, and two market mechanisms have been introduced for that. It will allow the parties to exchange the results of greenhouse gas reductions bilaterally and the reporting of such exchanges will also allow for the use of the parties to achieve their Nationally Determined Contributions.

Under that situation, Sri Lanka is preparing the carbon market strategy and guiding principles with the technical assistance of the Dubai Regional Cooperation Centre of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and expects to complete the work by the end of this year. Meanwhile, various project developers have submitted project proposals related to the main sectors of electricity, industry, waste management, transport, agriculture and forestry identified by Sri Lanka to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

As such, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the proposal presented by the President in his capacity as the Minister of Environment to appoint a committee headed by the Secretary of the Ministry of Environment to evaluate the project proposals and reach decisions until the carbon market strategy and guiding principles are implemented.