Abstract:
Agriculture plays a decisive role in the global economies and remains central to
the lives of a great many people around the world. It has been widely accepted
that climate change has caused numerous challenges to the agriculture sector,
but comprehensive and effective steps are yet to be taken by some nations. Sri
Lanka is identified as one of the nations severely affected by climate change risks
and falling into this category. This is a policy deficiency because most developed
economies have taken policy decisions to limit carbon dioxide emissions that
cause climate change even though their economies are dependent on the fossil
fuel. During the past decades public opinion has shifted to concern climate
change risks across the world demanding government policy alternatives to limit
the carbon dioxide emissions. In this context, in developed economies public
opinion has substantially influenced development of policy alternatives to
investment in renewable energy to reduce carbon dioxide emissions caused by
fossil fuels. This benefits the agricultural sector because the agriculture is the
sector worst hit by climate change. To address this policy gap, the objective of
this paper is to explore how Sri Lankan public concern about climate change and
agriculture effects on policy alternatives to mitigate the climate change risks, by
comparing it with the same trend in the United States. The secondary data
obtained from the Google trends information from 2015 – 2020, and the
emissions data disclosed by fossil fuel companies for the same period. Excel
spreadsheets are used to give graphic and numerical outputs in a time – series
using descriptive analysis method. The outcome of our graphical analysis reveals
public concern has had a real impact on emission reductions in the US, an
advanced economy, leading to a reduction of over 100 million tonnes of
emissions annually, while, Sri Lankan’s public concern about climate change is
highly unlikely influence policy alternatives to avoid climate change risks,
leading to increasing emissions and risking the agricultural industry and the Sri
Lankan economy
