17 October 2018 An options paper focussed on strengthening climate change finance coordination and information sharing for Papua New Guinea will be presented to the country’s National Executive Council. This follows a stakeholder workshop held in Port Moresby on 5th October 2018.
The validation workshop, which built on earlier consultations undertaken in August 2018, by the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat and the PNG Department of National Planning and Monitoring (DNPM), brought together representatives from government, development partners, training institutions and non-state actors.
The workshop provided a range of options and recommendations on institutional arrangements and a national coordination mechanism for climate finance, sustainable funding sources and modalities, human capacity, and policies and plans. These were outlined in an ‘Options Paper’ that the DNPM intends to bring up to the Central Agencies Coordination Committee and the National Executive Council, for consideration and endorsement.
In opening the workshop, DNPM’s Deputy Secretary for Policy Mr Joe Kapa said, “This is one of the most important initiatives the Government of Papua New Guinea is pursuing given that climate change is a cross-cutting development issue for PNG, and therefore needs to include and gauge the views of all stakeholders”.
“Climate finance in PNG is very important and will support the implementation of the recently launched Medium Term Development Plan (MTDP) III 2018 – 2022. There are alot of commitments internationally, and we need a systematic and coordinated approach to access and draw down on funding to implement climate change and sustainable development activities”, said Mr Kapa.
PNG’s National Designated Authority for the Green Climate Fund and Manager for the Projects Branch within the Climate Change & Development Authority (CCDA), Mr Jonah Auka thanked the Forum Secretariat for providing the technical assistance and assured stakeholders of CCDA’s commitment to improve coordination and information sharing on climate finance.
The Forum Secretariat provided technical support through its Climate Finance Adviser at the request of the Government of Papua New Guinea - to identify a national coordination mechanism for climate finance, build capacity to understand the global climate finance landscape and opportunities, and develop an options paper on internal and external sources of revenue to address climate change.
