Minister to chair rainforest group

PAPUA New Guinea has assumed the chair of the Coalition of Rainforests Nations, a group within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The chairmanship was formalised after Cabinet approval and the signing of memorandum of understanding in September at the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York.
Environment, Conservation and Climate Change Minister Wera Mori will become chairman. He led a PNG delegation to the United Nations Conference of Parties (COP 25) session in Madrid, Spain.
Mori’s chairmanship role will address climate change and environment sustainability in the forest and land-use sectors in PNG and in other rainforest countries.
UN Climate Change executive secretary Patricia Espinosa estimated that global temperatures could more than double by the end of this century with the current national determined contributions.
“This will threaten our existence on this planet,” she said.
“There needs to be an immediate and urgent change in trajectory to stabilise global temperature rise by 1.5 Celsius by the end of this country through emissions reduction of 45 per cent by 2030 and to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.”