All on Glasgow trip assigned tasks, says Mori

ALL members of the country’s delegation to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, have tasks to do to justify their going, says Environment Conservation and Climate Change Minister Wera Mori.
“During our team meeting upon arrival in Glasgow, I made it absolutely clear that we were all here at the expense of taxpayers and that we are obligated to vigorously pursue Papua New Guinea’s climate issues,” Mori said.
Some of the delegates were funded by the Australian government and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Mori said.
The 28 officials from the Coalition of Rainforest Nations secretariat included in the PNG delegation are paying for their own way.
Mori said he had reminded all that the trip was paid for by taxpayers and that they should meaningfully participate in the climate summit.
He said parliamentarians and government officials had been organised and individually assigned to attend meetings and side-events, and report back to him.
“This is to ensure whatever assistance is secured at high-level meetings with interested investors, complements PNG’s overall climate change adaption and mitigation objectives” Mori said.
Mori said the agreements and arrangements signed on the margins of COP26 would far outweigh the K5 million that critics had been quoting on the official travel expenses to Scotland.
Agreements and arrangements with foreign partners that have been concluded include:

• A MEMORANDUM of understanding with Australia on capacity building to participate in global carbon markets;
• HOST country agreement with the World Agroforestry Centre on forest conservation and;
• MASTER development agreement with Fortescue Futures Industries on the development of alternative sources of clean energy.

“Our aim is to join like-minded countries in endorsing the Paris Rule Book, to ensure reduction in global greenhouse gas emission targets to preserve PNG’s pristine rainforest in a sustainable manner,” Mori said.