Some thoughts on green financing options for Sri Lanka

By Prof. Nimal Gunatilleke

continued from yesterday)
Debt-for-Climate Swaps

Debt-for Climate Swaps are also emerging as yet another viable option that can generate the much-needed fiscal space for Middle-Income Countries like Sri Lanka to focus on climate ambitions and economic recovery while reducing their overall debt burdens.

A debt for climate swap is an agreement between a sovereign debtor and one or more of its international creditors by which the latter forgives all or a portion of the debtor’s external debt in exchange for a commitment by the debtor to invest, in domestic currency, in specific climate projects during a commonly agreed period. The rationale behind debt swaps is that debt can be acquired at a discount. When creditors do not expect to recover the full nominal value of debts, they may be willing to accept less. In exchange for (partial) cancellation of the debt, the debtor government is prepared to mobilise the equivalent of the reduced amount in local currency for agreed purposes on agreed terms. The Debt for Climate swaps help countries struggling to service their debts to reduce the debt and free up fiscal space (cash flow) for climate-friendly investments.

Debt swaps provide opportunities for raising capital especially in low-income countries to address environmental and other policy challenges and support green growth. For the debt for climate swaps, the debtor government commits to invest the accrued savings from debt forgiveness in climate adaptation or mitigation. Debt-for-climate swaps have the potential to transform daunting debt into opportunities to reduce climate vulnerability and implement much-needed adaptation. These swaps would thus contribute to the Paris Agreement, which stipulates that developed countries should mobilize climate finance from a wide variety of sources through a variety of actions.

The potential for using debt-for-climate swaps as an innovative financial solution to the twin crises of climate change and debt distress is very high. Such debt swaps provide opportunities for raising capital in debt-stridden low-income countries to address environmental and other policy challenges and support green growth. However, only when the debt has been made sustainable, the swaps can transfer resources for climate purposes.

A number of developing countries are engaging in debt-for-climate swaps since Seychelles secured the world’s first debt-for-climate swap deal for protecting the world’s oceans with the Paris Club group of developed country creditors in 2016, aimed at ocean conservation and climate resiliency. Since then, several Small Island Developing States (SIDS), especially those in the Caribbean region too have joined this program. These countries are facing situations similar to those that we in Sri Lanka, are currently undergoing. They too are heavily indebted countries with tourism-dependent economies more recently worsened by COVID -19 pandemic and subjected to serious climate vulnerabilities.

Activities that can be funded through this debt structuring, include management of marine reserves, coral and mangrove restoration, improving marine, fisheries, and coastal policies, economic diversification, and climate resiliency of coastal communities.

Debt for Climate Swaps provide excellent opportunities for promoting climate change mitigation projects such as the accelerated phasing-out of coal power projects. Quite fortuitously, 40 countries including Sri Lanka pledged at the COP 26 meeting of the UNFCCC held in Glasgow in 2021 and also agreed not to build/fund any new coal power plants. In the light of these recent developments in relation to the UN Convention on Climate Change and the internationally binding Paris Agreement, the Long-term Generation Expansion Plan (LTGEP) for Sri Lanka may need to be reworked. This plan envisages the retirement of several thermal power plants that are likely to be taken off from operation due to their age-related mal-functioning and more importantly, the construction of two more coal-fired power plants totaling 1500MW in the late 2020s. Debt for Climate Swaps are strong candidates for facilitating the early retirement of coal/thermal power plants and investing in energy-efficient clean energy projects in Sri Lanka.

Debts for Climate Swaps are also eligible for climate change adaptation which include Nature- based Solutions that include conservation and enhancing diversity by restoration of degraded lands including wetlands. The rationale for undertaking such projects, which are often not commercially viable business models, is that their benefits, such as enhanced biodiversity, higher water tables, carbon capture, improved well-being of citizens, green jobs created, etc. far outweigh the costs involved. Their socio-economic benefits being intangible are often not captured or are externalized in standard benefit/cost analyses. However, in this Decade of Forest Restoration declared by the United Nations, such ventures partnered with developed countries are being used to reduce the debt burden of developing countries.

Conclusions

In summary, Sri Lanka has in place most of her key development strategies and plans for the next several years in conformity with major global conventions on biodiversity, climate change, and combating land degradation. They are the following:

National Biodiversity Action plan (NBSAP 2016-2022),

National REDD+ Investment Framework and Action Plan (NRIFAP 2018-2022),

National Action Program for Combating Land Degradation in Sri Lanka (NAP-CLD 2015 -2024),

National Adaptation Plan for Climate Change Impacts in Sri Lanka (2016 – 2025).

Using the information provided by these strategic action plans, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka together with Ministry of Environment has prepared a Biodiversity Finance Plan (BFP) for Sri Lanka (2018 – 2024) with 13 prioritized finance solutions some of which I have highlighted in this article. The donor agencies are also very much interested in entering into green financing partnerships with countries in need of investment capital. Therefore, every effort should be made to make this current adversity an opportunity of a lifetime.The Prime Minister informed the parliament on 06^th July 2022 that Sri Lanka is participating in the bailout negotiations with the IMF as a bankrupt country and is going into a deep recession this year and have to face current difficulties extending into 2023, as well. As such, the country needs to submit a plan on Sri Lanka’s debt sustainability separately to the IMF for which a strong political leadership to take visionary decisions is the order of the day.

At this critical juncture of our nation, it may be well worth reminding ourselves of the historic words of John F. Kennedy at his inaugural address as the 35^th president of the United States in 1961‘My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country’ which challenged every American to contribute some way to the public good. Also, what a one-time prime minister of Sri Lanka SWRD Bandaranaika wrote in his son -Anura’s album which later became a more public proclamation ‘the main duty of man is to serve man’ are words that we need to convert to deeds at this moment of despair.

This is in stark contrast to protesting with the stereotypic slogans ‘Diyaw, diyaw, diyaw’ by the politically indoctrinated trade unions and the misguided young intelligentsia at every turn during this period of despondency with much inconvenience and annoyance, in particular, to the already suffering working class people. We are in need of a socially astute political leader with a vision who can stand tall and adapt the words of JFK as ‘My fellow Sri Lankans, ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country’ in this hour of deep political and socio-economic crisis and turmoil to steady the ship and steer it safely to calmer waters. Finding a national figure with such qualities at this moment is the Quadrillion Rupee (inflation accounted for) problem!