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Climate action necessitates a transition addressing distributional impacts and inequality. In May 2023, a workshop gathered stakeholders to contribute to policy recommendations aiming to increase policy coherence between the Paris Agreement and the Agenda 2030 in Sri Lanka.
Experts and practitioners working on climate change and agriculture at workshop in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Photo credit: Sanjaya Mendis.
By considering inequalities and the needs of vulnerable groups, new policies can result in more viable solutions to protect communities from the effects of climate change.
In Sri Lanka, climate change risks make vulnerable those farmers whose livelihoods depend on a stable climate, as well as all who depend on rural agrarian communities for food security.
Without a just and equitable transition, climate change impacts can continue to affect the most vulnerable and the poorest. Yet, inequality differs at local, provincial and national levels, making climate risks asymmetrically distributed among the population.
To address this, the Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA), SEI and the Climate Change Secretariat of Sri Lanka hosted a workshop on “Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development: Linkages between Climate Action, Agriculture, and Inequality”. The workshop in Colombo gathered experts and practitioners working on climate change and agriculture to get their views and input on a Sri Lankan case study, led by Karin Fernando, Sustainable Development Team Leader at CEPA.
SEI scientist Zoha Shawoo explaining the SDG synergies tool at workshop in Colombo. Photo credit: Sanjaya Mendis.
Sri Lanka has tried to maximise synergies among different sectoral sustainable development goals in recent years. The panellist Chamindry Sapramadu, General Director of the Sustainable Development Council of Sri Lanka, shared recent efforts such as Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) and the Climate Prosperity Plan. While CSA uses sustainable land management techniques, conservation agriculture, and the adoption of climate-resilient crop varieties, the Climate Prosperity Plan is anchored around energy, finance and sectors such as sustainable transport.
However, one of the key insights from the case study in Sri Lanka was a need for more accountability and oversight for policies when it comes to policy making. Karin Fernando illustrated this by pointing out that when governments change, policies change, discouraging stakeholders to go through with a policy. Thus, if policy making was unclear and was done in a way that did not consider farmer’s vulnerabilities, these vulnerabilities could increase.
For example, Fernando discussed policy changes such as the overnight chemical fertiliser ban that dramatically decreased farmers’ yields.
Unfortunately, when we spoke to people, the fertiliser ban was fresh in people’s minds and it was really an example of how one policy could have so many different outcomes.
Karin Fernando, Sustainable Development Team Leader at CEPA
Thus, policies need to be decided systematically, and institutional arrangements need to be consistent and coherent. In addition, issues seen as hindering policy coherence were linked to fragmented institutions and often too many policy initiatives leading to different agencies unknowingly working on the same issues.
In country studies and workshops such as Sri Lanka’s, part of the ClimEQ project, researchers describe policy coherence as “a process of policy making that systematically considered the pursuit of multiple policy goals in a coordinated way, minimising trade-offs and maximising synergies”. This includes examining the underlying ideologies, power dynamics or ways of thinking that might be enabling or limiting it.
During the workshop, SEI scientist Zoha Shawoo brought attention to the need to design processes that account for both climate goals and SDGs, instead of these being siloed and separate. According to Shawoo, the lack of progress on both agendas raised difficult questions, such as how can we move away from the unequal power dynamics and vested interests that created the climate crisis to begin with, leaving certain populations more vulnerable than others?
When developing policies, the design process needs to involve communities affected by the policy to account for local priorities as well, and assessing and monitoring the impacts of its implementation.
SEI scientist Zoha Shawoo
SEI scientist Zoha Shawoo shares what impact the workshop made on participants and how they can benefit from using the SDG synergies tool.
Program / A programme on aligning climate action, reduced inequalities and sustainable development.
Tool / Analyze and compare how climate actions correspond to the Sustainable Development Goals.
Past event / SEI experts will discuss governance mechanisms to manage inequalities stemming from climate policies and achieve a just transition at COP28.
Event on 06 September in Bangkok / An official launch of World Vision and the Stockholm Environment Institute's latest research will be held on 6 September in person and online.
Design and development by Soapbox.
