PNG leads Pacific Island nations in Climate Change meet in Poland

THE Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) supported Papua New Guinea at the global climate change meeting in Poland to access climate finance to address related issues in PNG and member MSG countries.

MSG member countries decided to support PNG during the 24th Conference of Parties (COP 24) of the United Nations Framework Convections on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which ended on Friday.

Climate Change and Development Authority (CCDA) managing director Ruel Yamuna, who led a government delegation from PNG to the COP 24 and other related high-level climate change meetings, said an event was organised bcy MSG focusing on the needs of Melanesian countries to accessing climate finance on the sides of COP 24 in Poland.

“The overall objective of the MSG initiative is to facilitate the mobilization of climate finance to support the needs identified by the members of the MSG which include Fiji, PNG, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu regarding the implementation of priority mitigation and adaptation actions in accordance with their nationally determined contributions (NDC’s) and national adaptation plan (NAPs) goals,” he said.

MSG Secretariat director-general Amena Yauvoli, of Fiji, stated that the MSG was the first group of countries that have used the United Nations Framework Convections on Climate Change process to garner support for the region in terms of addressing climate change.

Yamuna, who presented PNG’s needs on climate finance at the meeting, acknowledge the kind support provided by the Secretariat.

“PNG as a developing country and needs to have the right enabling framework to attract investment from different partners, including private sector and development partners to meet our needs and targets,” he said.

“We see this project as an opportunity to provide some synergies to garner support towards the implementation of our NDCs and NAPs moving forward.”

Yamuna said at the national level, PNG had started its path towards implementation by way of endorsement of the National REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) Strategy last year which now guided the work of different stakeholders, especially sectors to aligning themselves with the requirements of the UNFCCC to implement REDD+ in the country.

“We have also just been given over K2 million by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) readiness programme to work with our stakeholders to prepare projects for the GCF,” he said.

“So this is the kind of support that we need to enable us to achieve our climate change goals and targets.”