Cassandra Complex: Analysis on Law Relating to Climatic Change in Sri Lanka

Abstract

According to the strategic report of Ministry of Disaster Management in Sri Lanka, a sever landslide occurred in Meeriyabedda area in Kotabatha Grama Niladari Division in Haldemulla Divisional Secretariant Division in Baddulla Distrci in 29th October 2014 at 7.30 a.m. Due to this landslide number of people lost their lives and lives of their closed ones also number of people lost their housings. This happened due to sudden and heavy rains caused by the changes in the rain cycle in Sri Lanka. Washington Department of Ecology identifies very severe landslides as a result of climatic change. Therefore, now it is high time to identify Sri Lanka as another victim of Climatic change in the world. It is clear that we have certain laws pertaining to the climatic change, but nor key legislation. Number of environment related legislations are indirect contributors in mitigating the issue. However, still there are issues in implementing and practicing. In this backdrop, author seeks to analyse the laws, regulations and policies relating to the climatic change in Sri Lanka and to suggest possible recommendations in order to mitigate the impacts of climatic change in Sri Lanka. The research would follow the legal research methodology which is mainly based on the literature review of Environment Law Legislations, Regulations and Policies. Particularly, the research is based on primary sources of law such as international documents, statutes, and judicial decisions. Further, this study engages in a comparative analysis of the concepts of International Environmental Law principles with domestic Environmental Law.