The Nationally Determined Contributions is a key milestone towards describing a country’s commitments to reduce the Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
This was also embedded in the Paris Climate Agreement under Artilce 4 which requires requires each Party to prepare, communicate and maintain successive nationally determined contributions (NDCs) that it intends to achieve, adapt to the impacts of climate change and pursue domestic mitigation measures.
To meet this global objective, each country needs to submit the updated NDC by 2020 and every five years thereafter.
Papua New Guinea is at the forefront of climate negotiations and was the first country in the world to submit its intended NDC to the UNFCCC. The large intact forests, the biggest island in the Pacific and prone to climate hazards made the country champion to fight adverse impacts of climate change.
The Climate Change and Development Authority (CCDA) is a lead government agency to coordinate climate initiatives in the country and serves as a National Designated Authority to the UNFCCC.
To commence the revision of NDC, the CCDA has put a stepwise approach to coordinate enhancement process between actors from the government agencies, development partners and civil society as well as private sector. Hence, a Technical Working Committee (TWC) comprised of the CCDA divisional experts was established to review the current NDC and determine roles and responsibilities of the NDC revision.
The revision of PNG’s NDC is supported by a range of development partners, including NDC partnership, UNDP, FAO, Global Green Growth Institute, UNEP, GIZ, Government of Australia and others.
The first three-day TWC lockdown session was held with the financial support of the UNDP’s Climate Promise at the Koitaki Country Club from 29 June to 1 July 2020. It was facilitated by the CCDA’s Measurement, Reporting & Verification (MRV) and National Communication (NC) Division.
The PNG’s NDC National Focal Point, Alfred Rungol, said this session is very timely to better coordinate the efforts of the government and other stakeholders to revise NDC and align with the national development policies and 2030 agenda on Sustainable Development Goals.
The UNDP Resident Representative, Dirk Wagener, said UNDP has been a traditional development partner and will continue to support the government of PNG to build capacity and provide technical support in addressing climate change in PNG.
The National Executive Council was acknowledged for the recent endorsement of the policy submission on NDC revision and Sustainable Development Goal 13 (Climate Action) Roadmap. This is the first achievement under this partnership which confirms high-level buy-in among decision makers.
(CCDA NDC Technical Working Committee at Koitaki Country Club for the First Lockdown Drafting Session for the PNG Enhanced 2020 Draft – Picture: CCDA)