you are watching bbc news. now.. can sri lanka and other countries put any kind of climate adaptation policy front and centre amid the worlds growing economic crisis? here's global questions: welcome from sri lanka capitol. i am on the cities beautiful waterfronts, along the indian oceans. sri lanka standing coastline mix of popular with visitors there is many around the region, extreme weather rising sea levels and is sri lanka summary of a test of what not to do and

environmental challenges. and for copp 27 agreement, help developing nations be enough to avert climate catastrophe. that is global questions sri lanka, surviving climate change. as it marks 75 years of independence from britain. i have a panel from here and sri lanka were going to be answering questions from my audience here.

i've got a panel from here in sri lanka who are going to be asking questions from my audience here. let me tell you who's in the hot seat for this edition of global questions. ruwan wijewardene is deputy leader of the united national party, and is the president's right—hand adviser on climate change. he recently launched a climate prosperity plan to tackle the crippling effects of the climate crisis. professor mohan munasinghe is an eminent sri lankan climate scientist. he was vice—chair of the un international panel on climate change when, as an institution, it was awarded the 2007 nobel peace prize with al gore

for efforts to combat climate change. and hemantha withanage is chair of friends of the earth international. he co—founded the centre for environmentaljustice, one of the most visible environmental organisations here in sri lanka. that's our panel. welcome to you all. applause. and don't forget — you too can join the conversation. it's #bbcglobalquestions. let's go to our first question now, and it is from amanda halliday. amanda, your question, please. is sri lanka preparing for the eventual shift away from the use of fossil fuels, and if so, how? ruwan, so let's start with you. i think the figures are something like 40% is clean energy... right. ..and 60% of energy is pretty dirty — it comes from coal and oil. absolutely. sorry to put it so bluntly. yes, we are, actually. so, we have pledged that we will lessen our dependency on fossil fuel and we would reach 70% of our energy production from renewable energy by 2030. so this is pretty much right up in our agenda, and there are a lot of projects that we are hoping to start, and some of it to start this year. one project in particular is the sri lanka offshore windery project, which we are hoping will — i think that it will produce about five gigawatts of power,

which is way more than what we need. but what we are hoping to do is actually start exporting electricity as well through that project, and it's most probably going to... i think it's a region of $16 billion of investments on this. so there are various projects like this, and we actually put forward our country prosperity plan in the cop27 — that was the president wickremesinghe himself put forward the prosperity plan. and in the prosperity plan, we have so many projects that are from renewable energy to agriculture to irrigation, everything — it's pretty much like a green pathway to the economic recovery of this island. all right. so the answer is, yes, sri lanka is preparing. absolutely, yes. 0k, hemantha, do you agree with that? i actually feel if you really. want to respect the climate targets based on the ipcc| reports and we have to go by zero emissions by 2050, so if you want to do that. by 2040, you have to definitely remove all the coal—power -

plants, which the 620 countries all agreed, i and then the transport sector — it's not only the energy, - electricity, but the transport sector. i i think we are very much behind these targets at the moment. l one of the reasons is that| although there was a huge advocacy from the civil society and the experts in sri lanka, l to ceylon electricity board to change their long—term generation plan, to bring more and more renewable energy, . that did not happen— because they're on coal buyers. so i think that was — - that is one of the problems still. now, we are slowly moving. into the wind and solar power, but i think we need rapid i investment in these sectors if we want to really... yeah, but you're not going to get that rapid

investment given the economic crisis here in the country... exactly. ..when people are struggling to put food on the table, right? so he's not given the government a very good scorecard there. 0k, professor munasinghe, how would you answer this question? i pick up on your last point — i think we are going through a severe economic crisis. so i agree with the ambitious long—term plans that the minister has set out and, globally, with the 2050 target for zero carbon. but that doesn't mean that each and every country can achieve that target, because especially if you're poor and you're trying to raise your — the poor population out of poverty, you need some headroom for growth. let's go to our next question. it's from natasha. natasha. good evening. a loss in damage funding mechanism is critical for the global south, but especially for vulnerable twenty countries, of

which sri lanka is a member of. how can we ensure accountability that the funds received by governments will contribute to achieving climate justice? all right. hemantha, i should just remind people that the loss and damage was that historic agreement taken at cop27 in sharm el—sheikh by richer nations to try to give money to developing countries to help them recover from the damage and the economic losses of climate change. but your answer to that question about accountability for such funds... in my opinion, all the - developing countries have been asked, in this loss and damage fund, for more than 15 years, i and it's a great thing| that we got that loss and damage fund in sharm el—sheikh in egypt. - but, unfortunately, there's no. money, and it will take another four, five years to bring - the procedures, guidelines, and then the developedj countries to put money. and, of course, although inl copenhagen, the countries — developed countries agreed . to put us$100 billion annually, that money didn't come, i still the green climate fund is only having 11.9 billion.

so, adaptation fund, 800... 998 million by now. - so there's no money coming l from the developed countries. even if we are planning to get some money from the loss i and damage money, it's not going to come sooner. - but this is something very, very urgent. . 0k. all right. i mean, there is going to be a lot of competition for limited funds. exactly. so, basically, what hemantha's saying, professor munasinghe, is talking about accountability of these funds if they came to sri lanka is a bit of an epidemic question, cos you don't think there's much money that's going to be coming. but there is this issue of climate justice at the core of that question, isn't there? yes, there is. let me just set this in context — the ipcc, the nobel peace prize was mentioned, one of the reasons why we received that prize was because we made the connection between sustainable development and climate change. and one of the key points that we have made is that most

of the emissions, historic emissions that have occurred were put there by the wealthier countries, basically the western countries, whereas the impacts of climate change will be felt mainly in the developing world. so there is a clear issue of climate fairness orjustice, and if you look at the numbers, basically one could argue that there is a greenhouse gas debt, that the western countries have exceeded their share, fair share of emissions, and i have some numbers here, which i won't quote, but if you look at the value of that debt — i did a quick calculation — it is something like $46 trillion, right? whereas the total debt, the financial debt of the developing countries

is only 11 trillion. so climate justice says, ok, if you owe 46 million, erase the financial debt, and over a period of time in instalments, you pay the remaining 36 trillion. now, just to put it in context — there is $2 trillion a year being spent on armaments, so the money is there. right. sure, the money is there. but you're talking about trillions... audience applause. as hemantha said, you'd be lucky to get millions or even billions. but, ruwan, your response? i mean, the question is — if funds do come through loss and damage to sri lanka, you, as a presidential adviser, would you say that there'll be accountability? absolutely — absolutely correct. i think transparency is needed when it comes to getting the funds and distributing the funds.

there's always an issue when it comes to developing nations. it's only in sri lanka. even some of the developed nations, the corruption level is there. but there has to, i think when it comes to loss and damage, there needs to be a proper system, a data management system. so if the data in there, then the loss and damage can actually give — the fund can actually give the amount according to that data, and then we can make sure that the money goes into the people that are needed, in need of the fund. so, and there has to be a transparent system as well so that... i mean, the developed nations, i mean, they are sending their taxpayers' money, and they need to know that their money is well spent. so it is up to us to make sure that they feel good about themselves as well and then show that there is not going to be any corruption here and everything should be transparent. natasha, what do you think about what you've heard

the panel said? well, i mean, given the historic reported misappropriation of funds in — notjust in sri lanka, but across the developing world, i really do wonder if this fund will bring equity and will bring justice to those who are most vulnerable. we think about the most poor communities across the country, across the north and the east who are underrepresented in politics and don't have as much political capital as those who live in colombo, for example. so, i am not sure, first of all, like the honourable guests have mentioned, getting this funding is going to be very, very difficult and it would be incredibly important, but i do wonder how much of this will reach the people who need it. thank you very much indeed. thank you, natasha. ok, i'm going to take a couple of questions together now that are slightly related. let's go to your first, tuan. my question is — producing vegetables and fruits has been on the priority list of our honourable president, and since six months, there is no progress actually in this field.

rohan, your question, please. thank you. my question is — climate is a science, so are we really using science, including the technologies to combat climate change ? thank you. thank you very much. all right. professor munasinghe, why don't you kick off on the question about the allocation of land for food production, because obviously, there's a lot of food insecurity in the country at the moment. it reinforces the point i started with that sustainable development and climate solutions should be integrated. it's very clear that we go for win—win solutions. so if — i don't know the specific situation in sri lanka because i'm not a policymaker, but anything to do with growing more biomass and if you can feed people

at the same time, this is clearly win—win because it will also fix carbon from the atmosphere. so, i mean, it's a no—brainer. those are the kinds of solutions we need and i hope the government will push it. and also remember, climate is only one of 17 sustainable development goals, so you have agriculture, energy, all of those, we have to integrate all of those aspects. fine. your want me to answer the question on technology as well? very quickly on that one, yeah. very quickly, i think one of the areas is digital technology. we do a lot of work — i do, my current research is on data science and data analytics, and there's a lot that can be done in the urban sphere, in the rural sphere, in fisheries and everything, using even simple things like cellphones that are every day, as well as advanced analytical techniques with artificial intelligence and so on, which can greatly reduce the burden on the environment because it reduces resource use, but makes people

more efficient. all right, thank you. ruwan, how would you answer the two questions on land allocation for food production, and also climate—smart agriculture use of technology, mobile phones, to know what prices are and also to give information that's useful for farmers and all the rest of it? absolutely. i mean, ithink the president has also made it a priority for — he knows exactly the food insecurity, which is in sri lanka at the moment. the land allocation has happened. i think the problem is the co—ordination between certain ministries and certain agencies, and that gets muddled up, and where, you know, people who really want to come and do their — to get their food growing in everything, they find it very hard to get land allocated to do that. this is one of the problems that we've been facing. but i think — i know that the three forces have been put to start growing food

and everything in certain government lands that have been used for so long, but i think — and i know that when it comes to colombo, the colombo municipal council has been using some of their land to — for food production as well, but unfortunately, there's been little hiccups here and there in which hopefully we can tweak it and get things moving along as soon as possible. 0k, hemantha? i think we have a huge problem with this policy difference. - it's because the conservation policies and agriculture - policies, they're not. matching each other. and we see each and every. day our struggle has become fighting against the forest destruction. | there are many, many examples i can bring, i and there are court cases also. but there are a lot of... butjust explain that — deforestation — because people want to take the land for agricultural purposes? exactly. — and who's doing that, hemantha? these are the politically - supported people in many areas

and sometimes they are big. people going out from outside of those areas and they are i destroying hundreds of acres just for maize cultivation. but it's a scandal, isn't it, really? it is, because the agriculture ministry is giving this land i and we have a problem - with the agriculture minister and the minister of forest| and wildlife conservation, are both same minister. and they have to - balance the situation. so, therefore, and the giving l away some of the forest areas, and then trying... crosstalk. for profit, for personal profits, and so on. before you carry on, just, hermantha, ruwan, do you want to respond to hemantha and perhaps reassure him? because he doesn't look like he's really buying your arguments. there is a problem where people are cutting down forests and going and putting up maize, like what hemantha said. but i think what the president... crosstalk. but shouldn't that be stopped? it has to be stopped,

and one way that the president is wanting to come in to stop it is he's bringing an environment act into parliament, he's bringing a climate change act, and as well as a forestry act. so that will give more powers to stop people from going in and cutting down trees and basically clearing our forests. 0k, hemantha, and on the use of technology, i mean, there are all sorts potential... there are a lot of- technologies we can use. at the same time, we have to see there are some fulll solutions, for example, putting fertiliser into the ocean - and trying to absorb i all this carbon dioxide, spraying chemicals into. the atmosphere and make the clouds whiter, and these| kind of bad technologies also come, these are the - technologies that mostly we hear at the international. cops, and that is how the big major corporations can continue to make the emissions, - the rich countries continue to make the emissions, i but at the same time, they say, "ok, we have this technology i

to combat all these climate . issues" and which, as the civil society, we are no buying that kind of argument. i got a question here on social media from amjad azmeer, who says, "to meet the climate targets set by sri lanka's "nationally determined contributions, ndcs, "what are some concrete actions that the government "of sri lanka has taken, is taking or plans to take "in 2023 to engage with the private sector on climate?" so, the role of the private sector is very important, isn't it, in this? i mean, just take tourism, for instance — you need sustainable tourism, one of the bedrocks of your economy here — who wants to quickly answer that? what about you, ruwan? absolutely. we are engaging with the private sector as well, and it is absolutely essential that we do, because when we do engage with the private sector, they bring in innovation, they bring in technology, and of course they're more efficient than working with the government.

but it is essential, and the government has been working with the private sector very closely, and one way is also to bring in investments, as well as to predict the environment through these investments. professor munasinghe, perhaps this issue of sustainable tourism, private sectors involved in that. a lot of people depend on tourism for their livelihood here in sri lanka. you want to say to everybody, "come and visit the country"? but this engagement with the private sector is critical? yes, the question is, is the private sector part of the problem or is it part of the solution? i'd like to believe the second, that we have to work towards it, because the private sector is very big, and you cannot exclude that, so some of them are good and some of them are not. you have to work with those who are good, and to give you an example, taking

on military expenditures, $2 trillion, that is the bad private sector which is making huge profits on armaments, but they are the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases. nobody challenges the military in any country saying, "your greenhouse gas emissions are high. "reduce it." but they will go after the small person. thank you. applause. hemantha, did you want to respond on the private sector? we say, roles for business, rights for people. - we say, as the professor mentioned, we say that i the private sector is the - problem because they are not really willing to reduce . their gas, greenhouse gas emissions, but at the same time without them, joining this, - so we cannot resolve the issue. of course, sri lanka . and the private sector, there are very few big - industries, they've been trying to do something, but there i should be a huge master plan

in this country- to bring all of these people, because many- of the smaller companies don't know what to do and howj to reduce their emissions and carbon footprint. we need a solution. we recently had a meeting and they said this - is the first time we're - listening to this language. we have a fundamental issue about bringing. everybody on board. thank you. not only the local... bring everybody on board. sorry to cut you there, but we are running out of time. we are going to our final question. your question, please. young people have been at the forefront of climate advocacy. if the absence of young people in decision—making roles is clearly visible, what are some things you have done to bridge this gap? climate diplomacy is critical to ensure equitable and collaborative climate action. how can sri lanka or south asia get started on this? all right, very quickly, gentleman, final points. professor munasinghe. ok, i fully agree.

this is the world that we are inheriting, which we have created, is not very sustainable and it's up to the young people to use modern technologies and so on to solve it, so they must be given a seat. make a very quick point, there is a report out in 2019, as chair of the presidential expert commission, which is called sustainable sri lanka 2030 vision. i made a point, out of 15 chapters, one is called the voice of the youth. there is a very big chapter on what young people feel and what they can do, so i support you fully. thank you. ruwan wijewardene, presidential advisor? when it comes to climate change, the youth are the ones who are leading it. i know that when it comes to the government, the ministry of environment has been working with trust to basically build capacity amongst our youth

when it comes to climate change issues. i fully agree, i think the youth has to be more engaged for climate change decision—making. and i think from what i know is that we have sent a delegation of youth to cop27, we have sent a delegation to coy27 and we want to engage the youth more. there is, of course, we are also hoping to establish the climate change university in sri lanka, the international university, that will help build capacity as well as do research for climate. thank you. that would be a first in the whole world. hemantha, final point. i really support the idea about bringing youth . into this decision—making. it's notjust, we know people in sri lanka and elsewhere, i many of them are doing fridays for future, - many of them are doing

a lot of demonstrations| against all these bad guys i in the climate negotiations. but bringing them to the table and give them a say— and listening to them is vital if you want to resolve - the issue because in this| discussion we are talking about intergenerational equity, because we, our people, - the current generation, - we're not supposed destroy everything, and die, - and then give a very dirty, polluted world for our future generation _ that's what we're trying to do, but the youth should stand up| and fight for thisjustice, - otherwise you won't get that chance. i really want to support - all the young people to come forward and fight. thank you so much. that's all from this edition of global questions and how sri lanka is coping with devastating consequences of climate change. i hope we brought you some insights into this very pressing subject. remember, we are the programme that brings you the trend lines behind the headlines.

thank you to my panel and to my audience here in colombo, and to you too, wherever you're watching or listening to this programme. from me, zeinab badawi, and the rest of the global questions team, until the next time, goodbye. applause. hello there, it has been cold again today across england and wales. even if you did have the sunshine. some areas have seen a struggle with mist and fog across parts of northern england, east wales, mist woodlands and country. towards the north—west of the uk things are looking very different. atlantic air and a lot of cloud bringing in milder conditions.

still going to be windy for scotland and northern ireland into the night, more rain from the atlantic. some cloud good agent to westernmost parts of england and wales but on the whole we have clear skies leading to more fog, particularly across eastern parts of england, it will be dense and freezing. widespread loss for england and wales, as low as —7, chilly for south—east scotland, the rest of scotland and northern ireland should see temperatures above freezing. milder atlantic air. that is really struggling to arrive across south—eastern parts of the uk where we have this blocking area of high pressure keeping it cold. keeping us with some sunshine as well. fog around then as we move into tomorrow morning especially for eastern england, only lifting, one ortwo batches into the afternoon language. western england and wales will see cloud, clutter scotland and northern ireland, rain and drizzle from time to time, some sunshine around.

temperatures making 10 degrees in western scotland, northern ireland but across the midlands and each in england, could be only two or four degrees. the weather front in the north—west weakens as high pressure builds across it in time for monday, keeping it cold for much of england and wales, morning fog across eastern parts of england, again, slowly lifting. some sunshine, cloudy skies across western parts of england and wales and more especially in scotland and northern ireland where it is still mild. temperatures again nine or 10 degrees, quite a contrast though across the uk, still in the colder and generally sunny air through the midlands towards the south—east and east anglia. this weather front comes in from the north—west to give us a more definite change around the middle part of the week, by tuesday still looks cold across south—eastern areas, sunshine and fog. 0n south—eastern areas, sunshine and fog. on wednesday we see mulder moving across the whole of the country and with that milder as it looks like there will be a lot of cloud.

this is bbc news. i'm samantha simmonds with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the british prime minister says he has confidence in nadhim zahawi, after the conservative chairman admitted to what he called a "careless" error with his taxes. britain's labour party demands that the parliamentary standards watchdog investigate reports that the bbc chairman helped boris johnson secure a financial loan. thousands of israelis take to the streets against benjamin netanyahu's right wing coalition in what could be the biggest anti—government protests in a decade. wild camping campaigners say access to the english countryside is being eroded as they protest at one of the uk's biggest national parks. and millions of people around the world prepare for the lunar new year.