Climate change should be viewed not merely as an environmental issue but as a severe threat to national security, the Leader of the Opposition, Sajith Premadasa has stressed.

Sajith Premadasa made these remarks while addressing a meeting of the Parliamentary Caucus on Climate Change.

The Opposition Leader pointed out that when considering the negative impacts of climate change on the economy, food and water security, biodiversity and human life, national security is not limited solely to military security.

He said that amid challenges such as rising costs of goods and services and water scarcity, addressing climate change is not a responsibility that the government can tackle alone.

Premadasa said the country’s entire population of 22 million, parliament and civil society must work together to fulfil this responsibility, irrespective of political party affiliations.

The Opposition Leader also proposed establishing environmental societies at the Divisional Secretariat level to take environmental and wildlife-related knowledge to rural communities.

He further stressed the importance of protecting Sri Lanka’s traditional Perahera culture and elephant population for future generations.

For this purpose, Opposition Leader Premadasa proposed that instead of capturing elephants from the wild, a special elephant pool should be established by breeding young elephants from existing domesticated and tamed elephants.