Review of PNG’s Climate Change (Manangement) Act hits First Milestone

June 13, 2019

Participants during the PNG Climate Change Act review

Kimbe, West New Britain, 12 June 2019- The Climate Change and Development Authority (CCDA) has commenced stakeholder consultations across all regions with the first of four stakeholder consultations held recently in Mt Hagen and Lae of Papua New Guinea (PNG). This program of outreach will be followed by similar efforts in Islands and Southern regions, the last of which will conclude on 12 July 2019.

The regional stakeholder consultations aim to raise awareness on CCDA’s role as the Delivery Partner to PNG’s first Green Climate Fund Readiness Project. This project aims to strengthen access to climate finance and assist in developing climate mitigation and adaptation projects that will build the resilience of communities throughout the country.

CCDA, with the support of the the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)  has launched a review of the Climate Change (Management) Act (2015). It aims to identify ways to achieve more coherence, clarity and cohesion between various natural resource management sectors and associated legislation that better supports Papua New Guinea respond to the cross-cutting nature of climate change.

Mr Ruel Yamuna, CCDA’s Managing Director, on behalf of the newly appointed Hon. Jeffrey Kama, Minister for Environment Conservation and Climate Change, welcomed and thanked all participants particularly Mr. Williamson Hosea, Provincial Administration of West New Britain for hosting this regional workshop. He also delivered the message of the minister by reiterating the importance of involving subnational stakeholders to express views and share experiences on impacts of climate change in their lives.

Mr Yamuna recognised, “the impacts of climate change on such stakeholders, whose dependance on agriculture for food and economic security, made them particularly vulnerable to climate change.” Mr Yamuna also suggested,  “a number of initiatives could be implemented to further strengthen Papua New Guinea’s response to climate change, among them empowering entities like Provincial Climate Change Committees (PCCCs) or similar institutions to tackle climate change issues at the subnational and ground levels.”

These regional consultations have and will continue to involve representatives from associated provincial and local level governments, private sector, non-government organisations, local communities and customary land owners. Participants are provided with vital information over three days, giving them an insight into the possible opportunities and challenges of obtaining international finance for climate change projects. This includes advice on national financial procedures, requirements for accessing finance and the overall legal regime that ties this together.

This unique opportunity has been made possible through the support of a number of other development partners, namely the Climate Law and Policy (CLP), the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) and the USAID Climate Ready Programme as well as Korea’s International Aid Agency (KOICA).

Mr. Dirk Wagener, UNDP’s Resident Representative emphasised the importance of this work stating,  “Papua New Guinea is facing acute climate challenges. It has been striving to enhance its policies and legislation to further empower people in their fight against these impacts, particiularly on ways to build resilence and develop new socio-economic opportunities to improve livelihoods while protecting their natural environment.”

Discussions to date have seen participants express the need for more local ownership of climate change projects. These observations highlight the importance of lending such mechanisms to easier grass-roots access which emphasise bottom-up approaches and ultimately community ownership. Various proposals have been discussed during recent consultations, among them, establishing regional CCDA offices as one way of facilitating greater access to information, training and capacity building.

Contacts 

Lydia Nenanai Bobola, Stakeholder Engagement Officer, lydia.bobola@undp.org +675-3212877 (ext 210)