Climate change which is the ultimate outcome of global warming is now universally recognized as the fundamental human development challenge of the 21 century. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has conclusively established that Climate Change induced by global warming is the direct result of excessive emissions of greenhouse gasses due to human action, particularly due to uncontrolled combustion of fossil fuels. It is a certainty that the present and future generations have to live under the threat of climate change. All nations are affected by the impacts of climate change. However, developing countries are particularly vulnerable, as they lack the necessary adaptive capacity.

 Being a developing island nation subject to tropical climate patterns, Sri Lanka is highly vulnerable to adverse effects of climate change. Extreme weather events such as high intensity rainfall followed by flash floods and landslides, and extended dry periods resulting in water scarcity are now becoming common occurrences in Sri Lanka. Any adverse changes in already volatile weather patterns are likely to  impact adversely on the socio-economic activities in the country. Therefore, urgent action is necessary to take adaptive measures to build resilience of the country to face the adverse impacts of climate change. While taking adaptive measures as the priority, Sri Lanka will actively be involved in the global efforts to minimize the greenhouse gas emissions according to the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the framework of sustainable development and principles enshrined in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and it’s Kyoto Protocol (KP).

 Amongst the above efforts, sharing knowledge and information on climate change has become paramount important in order to face the challenge on climate change. The national climate change policy of Sri Lanka stresses the need of adopting multiple approaches to enhance knowledge, skills and positive attitudes of different stakeholders at all levels to address multifaceted, current and emerging issues of climate change. Further it highlights the need of facilitating and promoting the availability, accessibility, and sharing of climate change related information across all sectors at all levels. The National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy for Sri Lanka (2011 to 2016) also highlights the urgent need to provide convenient access to information and lessons from various initiatives through an improved and more effective platform for the planning, coordinating, sharing, and disseminating of climate change-related knowledge, which is also clearly linked to national planning activity. More importantly, National Adaptation Plan for climate change impacts in Sri Lanka (2016 – 2015) under it’s cross cutting needs of adaptation recommend to establish a common repository of scientific and awareness materials on climate change adaptation.

By recognizing the timely need of establishing a common platform to share and disseminate climate change related knowledge, Climate Change Secretariat (CCS) of the  Ministry of Environment and Wildlife Resources of  Sri Lanka’s Climate Change Knowledge Repository ( under the Third National Communication Project (TNC) funded by Global Environment Facility (GEF) through United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Sri Lanka). The key objective of the repository is to create a common platform to all stakeholders at all levels to share and disseminate the climate change related research and knowledge materials and increase the convenient access to those materials.  This will go a long way in bringing the information gap amongst various actors in the climate change arenas and Climate Change Secretariat invites respective institutions and individuals to upload and share the relevant literature on climate change in Sri Lanka in this repository and contribute to the success of this initiative.

The Sri Lanka Climate Change Knowledge Repository (SLCCKR) is a one stop repository of climate change related literature in Sri Lanka. This is an initiative of the Climate Change Secretariat (CCS) of the Ministry of Environment and Wildlife Resources, the lead agency of the government on national climate change plans and actions and the national focal point for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Among the other duties and functions CCS serves as the national knowledge and information service provider on climate change and it generates, collates, processes and shares wealth of information on climate change under the guidance of Ministry of Environment and Wildlife Resources.

This digital repository provides a national platform for all government, academic, private sector stakeholders and  all non government and Civil Society Organisations to share the scholarly research outcomes, policies, plans and strategies and other awareness materials on climate change in Sri Lanka across all sectors at all levels. Also it creates a global visibility to the climate change related research work carried out by different stakeholders and to the other related initiatives in Sri Lanka. Further as it collates and shares scientific information on climate change it facilitates the integration of scientific information in planning and decision making. 

By capturing, structuring and delivering the climate change knowledge materials from different stakeholders the Sri Lanka Climate Change Knowledge Repository allows it’s users to;

• Learn and gain knowledge on climate change and related issues
• Understand the research needs and knowledge gaps
• Extract the required information for planning and decision making
• Gather and process information required for reporting purposes

We here by invite respective institutions and individuals to upload and share the relevant literature on climate change in Sri Lanka in to Sri Lanka Climate Change Knowledge Repository and contribute to the success of this national initiative.

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In order to address the cross sectoral  nature of major environmental challenges caused by climate change, and to fulfill the commitments under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) &  Kyoto Protocol, the Ministry of Environment and Wildlife Resources, which is the National Focal Point for the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol has taken the initiative to establish a Climate Change Secretariat in 2008 under it’s  preview. 

The Climate Change Secretariat, which is headed by a Director of Ministry of Environment and Wildlife Resources, adopts a comprehensive national approach to address climate change challenges

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