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Activities in Papua New Guinea

Report on Papua New Guinea's participation in COP21

Participation in the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held on 30th November to 13th December, 2015

Two officers from the counterpart organization, PNG Forest Authority (PNGFA), and two experts of the JICA project "Capacity Development Project for Operationalization of PNG Forest Resource Information Management System (PNG-FRIMS) for Addressing Climate Change" participated in the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP21) held at Paris, France from 30th November to 13th December, 2015 as members of the PNG government delegation.

In the "Paris Agreement" in COP21, in order to curb global warming, the goal to reduce the temperature rising from pre-industrial level to less than 2.0 degree Celsius (also reference to the effort to reduce to 1.5 degree) was set. Almost all of the countries in the world participated in COP21 and achieved this substantive agreement, which made history of the climate change negotiations under the UNFCCCs. For REDD+, agreement has been reached on the three outstanding issues, namely, further guidance to safeguard information, non-market approach, and non-carbon benefits.. That indicates that the methodological guidance to REDD+ was completed. It is clear that REDD+ is explicitly included as a part of the legal framework.

At COP21, funding related issues had been also discussed.. The work plan and the report on the study for the Standing Committee on Finance (SCF), guidance to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the guidance to the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) were discussed. Consequently, the "market mechanism" would be included in the outcomes from "cooperative approach" such as Bilateral Crediting System and the Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM) which Japan is promoting.

In this COP21, the leaders from more than 150 countries including the Prime Minister of PNG participated from the first day of the conference, which gave great momentum to the very complicated but successful negotiations through the two-week session. The PNG government delegation led by the Prime Minister, Hon. Peter O'Neill, the Minister for Environment Conservation & Climate Change, the Minister for National Planning & Monitoring, the Minister for Forest have made proactive remarks in the respect of REDD+. They emphasized that the forestry sector is recognized as an important "mitigation" measure to climate change and there are strong expectations for the progress of REDD+ in PNG. The project experts have made technical inputs to the counterpart officers of PNGFA and contributed to facilitating the negotiation and discussion.

In parallel with the multilateral negotiations, the results of a number of technical solutions were reported. In the start-up event on a tropical forest monitoring system established by the JICA-JAXA cooperation in Japan pavilion, the REDD and Climate Change Division Manager of PNGFA, Mr Gewa Gamoga, reported the outcomes of this project and the challenges found out through the project, and expressed his expectation to utilize the services of ALOS-2 / PALSAR-2 based on these experiences. This PNG presentation contributed greatly to the success of the event.

Based on the outcomes of COP21, REDD+ activity will be more active within PNG not only in the support for readiness of REDD+ but also in demonstration and implementation of REDD+. PNGFA will play important roles in the REDD+ implementation. The JICA project will be gaining more and more importance. The project will continue to contribute to sustainable forest management and REDD+ in PNG with the information collected through this COP21 and with the legal basis established by this conference.

PhotoPrime Minister Peter O’Neill giving a speech (photo by UNFCCC)

PhotoDelegation meeting of PNG


PhotoPresentation by C/P in JICA-JAXA event

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