ENVIRONMENT

UN Climate Change Conference – Highlights of PNG’s participation

PAPUA New Guinea was amongst other countries that participated in the annual United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bonn at its 56th Session of the Subsidiary Bodies (SB56).
The session started on June 6 and concluded on June 16. Its purpose was to lay the groundwork for the next Climate Change Conference, (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
The SB56 session involves technical negotiations on the draft decisions that will finalise the Paris rule book in order to be considered and unanimously adopted in COP27. Once adapted, the Paris rule book will be implemented by Parties to the Paris Agreement.
The Paris rule book governs how the world community of 191 countries must pledge emissions reduction targets under the Paris Agreement and report on their progress.
Since PNG is a party to the Paris Agreement among 192 countries, it is important that PNG’s circumstances are reflected in the draft decisions. The PNG delegation consisted of a team of technical negotiators from the Climate Change and Development Authority (CCDA), PNG Forest Authority, National Energy Authority, and the Department of Works and Highways.
“The PNG delegation made sure that PNG’s circumstances are reflected in the key thematic areas in the draft decisions which includes adaptation, loss and damage, climate finance, response measures (mitigation), carbon markets and transparency in reporting,” said Debra Sungi, acting General Manager at the Climate Change and Development Authority.
In addition to the technical discussion sessions, the PNG delegation had separate bilateral meetings with the delegations from Japan and Singapore.
Both countries wanted to discuss the possibilities of participating with PNG through a cooperative approach under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement which is on carbon markets that will be used to achieve their nationally determined contributions (NDC). There was positive feedback from both countries in which they wanted to have a memorandum of understanding with PNG.
The PNG delegation also had a meeting with officials from the NDC Partnership to discuss the opportunities for PNG to access support from the international community to implement projects and activities identified in PNG’s Enhanced NDC Implementation Plan. The NDC Partnership officials revealed that PNG will be benefiting from the adaptation pipeline accelerator.
The adaptation accelerator is a fund that PNG will access and specifically focuses on: (i) preparing the necessary investments to meet PNG’s climate and sustainable development objectives; (ii) mobilising and providing resources to cover additional costs associated with planning, identifying, preparing, and managing sustainable projects; and (iii) accelerating these sustainable projects through their project cycle.
In the closing plenary of the 56th Subsidiary Bodies on June 16, Sungi delivered the closing statement for Papua New Guinea on behalf of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations. She outlined the important role that forest will play to stay on a pathway toward 1.5 degrees warming.
“The IPCC AR6 Working Group 2 report says agriculture, forestry, and other land use can provide large-scale emissions reductions and also remove and store carbon dioxide at scale. However, land cannot compensate for delayed emissions reductions in other sectors. All sectors should contribute to fight climate change, that is a reality,” said Sungi.

• Story and picture supplied by Climate Change and Development Authority

The Waigani Convention

By GODFRIED ANGI
IN the last article I discussed Basel Convention which is an international instrument which prohibits and controls transboundary movement of hazardous waste and disposal between nations.
This is a global instrument and therefore the global community or countries can become parties to the convention. Once a country becomes an active member by ratifying the convention, they agree to implement the provisions of the convention and abide by its governing rules.
Today, we discuss the Waigani Convention which is a regional version of Basel Convention. The Waigani Convention is a regional agreement under the 1989 Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous and radioactive waste Wastes and their Disposal. It applies the strict controls of the Basel Convention to the South Pacific area and ensures that hazardous waste cannot travel from New Zealand or Australia to another Pacific country, or to Antarctica.
Like the Basel Convention, it aims to both reduce the amount of waste produced by signatories and regulates the international traffic in hazardous waste.

Waigani suburb
The convention is named after the most powerful suburb in Port Moresby. If you are living or have visited Port Moresby, you will no doubt know where that suburb is and the composition of its facilities and services. That is where the heart and soul of PNG is nested. It is where the power brokers meet, where the cream of PNG bureaucracy is housed, where international dignitaries meet the Government of PNG and its people. That is where issues are debated and decisions are made that affects the lives and survival of the people of PNG.
The Waigani Convention was mooted and agreed upon in this suburb, was adopted on Sep 16, 1995 and entered into force on Oct 21, 2001.
Let’s look at some facilities in this suburb. These include the haus tambaran or Parliament House, the National and the Supreme Courts, the University of PNG, National Museum, and a number of foreign missions, to name a few prominent organizations.
The Basel and Waigani Conventions both address similar environmental issues on hazardous waste management but there are some differences between them. The Basel Convention is the global instrument that covers the global communities and the Waigani Convention is the regional convention for the Pacific region.
The Basel Convention does not cover radioactive wastes management but relies on other similar instruments such as the Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions.
The Waigani Convention on the other hand, was formulated using the Basel Convention as a guidance instrument for the Pacific regional implementation of the international hazardous waste control regime including other instruments (Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions)
Waigani Convention also covers radioactive wastes unlike the Basel Convention and its territorial coverage extends 200 nautical miles. Basel Convention extends only 12 nautical miles.
The convention is also strongly related to the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and other matters, 1972 (London Convention). Papua New Guinea is also a party to this convention.
The parties to the Waigani Convention have the obligation to reduce and control movement and production of hazardous wastes. The categories of hazardous waste are given in Annex 1 of the convention and those that demonstrate the characteristic of being hazardous are given in Annex 11 of the convention.
PNG Government being a party has commitments to: Take all appropriate measures to ban the import and export of hazardous waste to and from the Convention Area which is stipulated in Article 4.1 of the convention. Article 4.2 prohibits the dumping of hazardous wastes and radioactive wastes in the Convention Area. Article 4.4 ensure that within the areas of their jurisdiction the generation of hazardous wastes is reduced. Article 4.5 ensures availability of adequate treatment and disposal facilities for the environmentally sound management of hazardous wastes in the Convention Area
Conference of the Parties
Waigani Convention under Article 13 established a Conference of Parties and ordinary meetings of the Conference of Parties that shall be held at regular intervals of two years.
The primary role of the COP is to keep under continuous review and evaluation the effective implementation of the Convention. In particular, the COP is requested to:

1. Promote harmonisation of appropriate legislation, policies, strategies, and measures in order to achieve the goals of the convention;
2. Consider and adopt, where necessary, protocols or amendments to the convention.
3. Approve and examine the regular budget prepared by the secretariat; and
4. Establish or designate subsidiary bodies or agencies as are necessary for the implementation of the convention.

There are a lot more issues or items which we can discuss but due to space limitation I would like to focus on Competent Authority and the Notification provisions on trans-boundary movement of hazardous waste and their disposal which I think is the crucial part of implementing the provisions of these instruments.
In last week’s article on Basel Convention I discussed FPIC procedure whereby the importing countries and countries in transition of the transboundary shipment of hazardous wastes are informed and their approvals are given to allow accessibility.
In the Waigani Convention it is referred to as Notification procedure. The countries in transition route and importing countries are notified of the shipment.
Competent Authorities and Focal Points
Article 5 of the Convention makes reference to competent authorities and focal points. What are they and what is their role?
For effective implementation of this convention, the member countries are to establish one competent authority and one focal point. The competent authority is responsible for the implementation of notification procedures for transboundary movement of hazardous wastes in accordance with the provisions of Article 6 of this convention.
The focal point is responsible for transmitting and receiving information in accordance with the provisions of Article 7 of this convention. The Conservation and Environment Protection Authority (Cepa) of Papua New Guinea is both the competent authority and the focal point. Department of Foreign Affairs can also be the focal point of contact.
Article 6 of the Convention provides for the notification procedure for transboundary movement of hazardous waste between parties. In the Basel Convention it is referred to as FPIC – Free Prior Informed Concert Procedure. It is like a warning system advising the recipient country and countries in transition route to be aware of the shipment and the types of wastes and their composition. The countries are to give their content or approval for the shipment to take place.
The importing party shall acknowledge within reasonable time the receipt of the notification. The importing Party shall issue the acknowledgement to inform the notifier that it is consenting to the movement, with or without conditions, denying permission for the movement or requesting additional information.
In the event that additional information has been sought, a new period of days recommences from the time of receipt of the additional information.
The exporting party shall not allow the transboundary movement until it has received: (a) written consent of the importing party; (b) written consent from every transit party; (c) written consent of every non-party country of transit; (d) written confirmation from the importing party of the existence of a contract between the exporter and the disposer specifying the environmentally sound management of the wastes in question; and (e) Written confirmation from the exporter of the existence of adequate insurance, bond or other guarantee satisfactory to the exporting party.
There are other global and regional agreements, conventions and multilateral agreements that the Government of PNG is a signatory to.
Next Week: I will discuss some basic provisions of the environment permitting system under the Environment Act 2000.

• The author is principal scientist at Yeyeu Environmental Services based in Port Moresby