Tackling climate change

Key representatives from forestry, land, agriculture and the environment sectors are coming together this month to take part in sector retreats around Papua New Guinea (PNG).

This is to help the nation secure increased international funding and support to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.

Supported by the Government of PNG’s Climate Change Development Authority and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the retreats will flesh out Finance and Investment Plans to put into operation PNG’s National REDD+ Strategy (NRS) 2017-2027, which was endorsed by the PNG Government in May 2017.

The National REDD+ Strategy is part of PNG’s plan to take action against climate change and promote forest conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks, in line with the Paris Climate Change Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

It was developed over the past two years through a process of structured consultation and awareness raising with stakeholders from government agencies, civil society and the private sector.

Implementing REDD+ provides PNG with an opportunity to have its contribution to the global fight against climate change internationally recognised and financially supported.

Mirzohaydar Isoev, UNDP's Chief Technical Advisor on REDD+, said the development of the REDD+ Finance and Investment Plan is vital: “These sector-specific workshops will identify and elaborate specific plans of action within different sectors identified in the National REDD+ Strategy and assist the country to develop costed plans for how these will be achieved.

“For example, our first sector retreat in Kokopo on August 30 brought together representatives from forestry, including private sector, to discuss how to strengthen a sustainable forest industry in PNG that can deliver economic development and make PNG more resilient to the impacts of climate change.”

Isoev said the outcomes from the workshops will be collated into a single document to coordinate government finance and seek to attract development partners and private sector technical and financial support.

“This detail will help the government push forward with plans to get international funding for REDD+ so we can fight climate change by reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.” 

Over the next two months, similar sector-specific retreats will be held with the agriculture, environmental conservation and land sectors around the nation to identify priority actions for future financing to make sure that NRS plays a vital role to tackle climate change and contributes to the country’s green growth economy.

This project was made possible with funding from the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility’s Readiness Fund.

More information can be found at http://www.pg.undp.org/content/papua_new_guinea/en/home/operations/projects/environment_and_energy/forest-carbon-partnership-facility-reddt-readiness-project.html

(The first sector retreat in Kokopo on August 30 brought together representatives from forestry, including private sector, to discuss how to strengthen a sustainable forest industry in PNG that can deliver economic development and make the nation more resilient to the impacts of climate change – Picture: UNDP REDD+)

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Press release