Sir Robert Watson on tackling global warming and role of biz

By Madushka Balasuriya

When Sir Robert Watson, knighted for his groundbreaking work in helping synthesise scientific knowledge concerning a hole in the stratospheric ozone layer above Antarctica, decided to leave the cold British winter for a vacation in the sunnier climes of Sri Lanka, little could he have known that he would end up with an audience with the country’s President to discuss the country’s sustainable development policies.

However, that is just the turn of events that will come to pass when Sir Robert addresses two separate American Chamber of Commerce events next week (Monday and Tuesday), which will be graced by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, centering on the impact of climate change on businesses in Sri Lanka, and indeed globally.

In order to better gauge the current climate surrounding the private sector’s as well as the country’s attitude towards climate change, Sir Robert held a meeting earlier this week with several key stakeholders, following which he sat down for an exclusive interview with Daily FT.

While careful not to divulge key details of the discussions, as they will be disclosed officially on 24 January, he did reveal that the meeting centred a great deal on the context surrounding Sri Lankan businesses’ approach to sustainable development and how important it was for Sri Lanka to move towards a low-carbon economy.

“Sri Lanka’s needs to generate more energy, so what should their plan be? Significant attention is needed to induce efficiency, such as more efficient transportation - clearly an issue for Colombo - more efficient buildings, and more efficient industries,” explained Watson, as he voiced the need for the implementation of a “good” national energy plan, as well an adaptation strategy for the climatic changes already occurring.

A good place to start, according to Watson, would be the 17 UN Sustainable Development goals which every country in the world signed up for last year. Climate change affects several of the goals including food, water, sanitation and health, while these in turn have a critical impact on poverty as well as a country’s biodiversity. Watson believes that this, while alarming, also offers an opportunity, as any sustainability plan would by definition have to include climate and energy.

“Climate change to me is an environment issue, but it’s also a development issue, an economic issue, it’s a social issue, so it could be stimulated by anybody.”

“Does Sri Lanka know where it wants to go over the next 10, 20, 50 years? This could be a superb opportunity for Sri Lanka, or any other country in the world, to ask themselves the question: ‘How sustainable are we today, and what do we have to do now to put ourselves on a pathway of where we want to be?’ 

“That conversation needs to involve the government, private sector, NGOs, civil society and the media. Also this is not a rigid plan but sort of a vision of where one wants to go and a strategy that would be adaptable over time.”

Watson iterates that the initiative for putting such a plan in place, while it could be done by any concerned party, would be better served if it were taken up by an individual with a “significant level” of authority so as to offer the level of credibility needed to sustain it. Fortunately for Sri Lanka, the Environment Ministry is headed by the ideal authority figure, President Sirisena.

“Climate change to me is an environment issue, but it’s also a development issue, an economic issue, it’s a social issue, so it could be stimulated by anybody. You need at the end of the day, for anybody who cares about the future to be involved because you need ownership of a strategy by all sectors.

“But given that the President is also the minister for environment it could well be stimulated as an initiative, because it gives it credibility then. However, it shouldn’t just involve the Government but senior people from the private sector and NGOs, etc.”

“What the Government’s role is to me is to provide the right policy framework to allow the private sector, which is good at basically making money, to grow the country economically without destroying its natural resources.”

Indeed securing the involvement of the private sector should be key, but to do this the Government needs to put in place an appropriate policy framework that will withstand regime change. The framework will incentivise the private sector to prioritise long-term socially equitable economic development, something which has been ignored in the past due to the proliferation of cheap fossil fuels and the need to maximise “everything”.

“You can’t maximise everything. In many countries in the world they’ve tried to maximise food production, but that has led to ‘extensification’ where the land used for agriculture and such has grown often at the expense of forests and grassland systems. Yes while we have produced more food, we have had major negative effects on other sorts of biodiversity and our ecological systems.

“What the Government’s role is to me is to provide the right policy framework to allow the private sector, which is good at basically making money, to grow the country economically without destroying its natural resources.”

Trump factor

If this sounds easier said than done, that’s because it is. There are several external factors which come in to play, not least the recent shifts in the global political landscape. Yes, Donald Trump. The newly crowned President-elect of the United States is a renowned climate change denier, who has gone on the record with his belief that it is a hoax perpetrated by China to reduce America’s competitive advantage. 

“I personally don’t think we can stop it at two degrees, we’re on our way to three. But we have got to stop it being four, five and six. It’s hard to be totally optimistic, but I hope the world doesn’t fall off a cliff.”

A Trump-led America leaves a giant question mark over whether America will adhere to the pledges made in the recently signed Paris Agreement, which was signed with the aim of keeping global warming below 2°C. If the earth’s atmospheric temperature goes beyond that point, there will be fairly severe consequences ranging from an adverse effect on food production to a significant effect on rainfall, which will lead paradoxically to more floods and more droughts, explained Watson. 

“It sounds weird but in some parts of the world even if they get more precipitation and rainfall, there will be longer dry spells, so most countries are going to deal with much more variable weather. That means water management is going to be much tougher both for households and industry as well as agriculture. Crops will therefore need to be flood and drought resistant. 

“Sea level rise would mean salt water getting into rivers, so crops would need to be potentially saline resistant especially in coastal areas. In the tropics there will be a risk of health issues, more dengue, more malaria, more heat stress, while higher temperatures are clearly going to threaten plants and animals,” he added.

You may notice that some of these eventualities are already common place in the world, which is why Watson believes that even if the Paris Agreement pledges are adhered to any hope of keeping global warming below the 2°C might have passed us by. However, he still retains some degree of optimism.

“I personally don’t think we can stop it at two degrees, we’re on our way to three. But we have got to stop it being four, five and six. It’s hard to be totally optimistic, but I hope the world doesn’t fall off a cliff. We just have to keep showing the evidence because there is really no point in getting disillusioned. We’ve got to show that there are economic opportunities by addressing climate change.” 

So what hope does Sri Lanka have in the grand scheme of things? According to Watson, while controlling global politics is beyond their purview, it is important for Sri Lankan businesses to look at this as a golden opportunity to progress to a new energy paradigm. 

Sri Lanka has already seen several private sector projects in the recent past taking on the task of solar power generation. With the country facing one of its worst droughts in decades, there hasn’t been a more opportune time for the country as a whole to take notice of the need for sustainability. Watson hopes that his fortunately timed vacation will prove to be when the penny finally drops for those charged with overseeing sustainability in Sri Lanka.