Action needed to benefit from carbon trade

IN October last year, Parliament passed a bill to amend the Climate Change (Management) Act 2015.
Amongst other provisions, the bill enabled the collection of climate levies and the development of the carbon market in the country.
The bill also intended to provide for the establishment of trust accounts for the collection of revenue by the Climate Change and Development Authority (CCDA).
The then Opposition expressed dissatisfaction, saying that the Act was not focused on issues affecting the people directly.
In fact, there are many questions raised about the issue of climate change and carbon market in the country that warrant further deliberation.
For instance, despite the very many talks and programme launchings to do with climate change, do the people actually receive the benefits?
Indeed, do they understand what it is all about?
Expensive trips have been taken on very many occasions by overly-large Government delegations to attend high-profile climate change conferences with no reports or follow up actions in-country.
Millions have been pledged and spent in the effort to mitigate the effects of climate change but, as yet, no audit has been made public to our knowledge.
CCDA and other agencies involved in climate change matters need to be at the forefront of these issues.
Therefore, regulation of the climate change and carbon market laws is key to providing the proper administrative framework from which the people can benefit.
The regulatory aspect of carbon market is increasingly regarded as a key element in terms of compliance at the international level and so it must be done at the national level as well.
Climate change is a cross-cutting issue that involves many different aspects of a country’s development.
It is an ongoing concern that has demanded much attention of world governments and those in the scientific community to reduce its impact in countries that are most affected.
Papua New Guinea, like many other nations in the Pacific and abroad, is facing many significant challenges caused by climate change.
PNG is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change due to its low-lying coastal areas, high exposure to natural disasters and reliance on subsistence farming.
Furthermore, greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, trap infrared radiation (heat) from the sun which creates the greenhouse effect, ultimately leading to global warming and climate change.
To date, not much is known about these chemical elements that have an impact on climate change.
One such chemical element is carbon (C) which makes one part of carbon dioxide (CO2).
It is one of the main constituents of organic matter and is present in vast amounts in the planet’s atmosphere.
Carbon can also be harnessed as a valuable resource to be used for marketable gain.
PNG has a significant amount of naturally sequestered carbon, given that the country has one of the world’s largest forest area.
Regulations and policies needs to be established to mitigate the effects of climate change, particularly to be implemented for carbon markets to improve sustainable development.
The carbon market offers many opportunities for PNG to reduce greenhouse emissions, attract investments in renewable energy and conservation projects, and generate revenue through carbon credit trading.
The country stands to benefit greatly by participating in the carbon market. To do that a functioning regulatory framework is required to guide its operations.
There has an absence of a regulatory framework, which poses significant risks to governance, transparency and standards.
The absence of the regulatory framework has prompted the Government to impose a moratorium on voluntary carbon markets in March 2022.
The moratorium was to allow for an establishment of a proper regulatory framework to guide the carbon market operations and to ensure the country’s carbon market was guided in a structured manner.
CCDA, established in 2010 to coordinate and implement the country’s climate change policies and programmes, needs to implement regulations that provides for procedures relating to the application and approval process for issuance of permits for climate change mitigation activities intended to participate in carbon markets.
It should also provide for generation, sale, and transfer of carbon credits, benefit sharing, reporting requirements, and any other areas necessary for the operation of carbon trading mechanism.
By developing a comprehensive regulatory framework, PNG can unlock opportunities for emissions reductions, attract investments, and contribute to global efforts to mitigate the impacts of climate change.