Can PNG learn something from China about climate change policy?

THE country can learn from a lot on managing climate change from China by drawing policy or reviewing land tenure policies, an analyst says. 

Office of Climate Change and development senior policy analyst Joe Pokana said this after returning from an international workshop on exploring potential South-South Cooperation on monitoring and assessment of forest, deforestation and land degradation in the context of climate change in Beijing, China.

“As leaders in climate change negotiation and with a steady economy, China has so much to offer to developing countries, including Papua New Guinea,” Pokana said. 

“If China has the political will and good policy to change the mindset of its two billion people to re-course their carbon–neutral pathway, then Papua New Guinea, with a population of only seven million people, can learn from these experience in taking the right approaches by drawing policy or reviewing land tenure policy or other related policies that can identify gaps and address them accordingly.”

But Pokana said the country was on the right track with land use change and forest and low carbon growth as the country’s key policies in promoting green economy.

He said the country required greater investment in this natural ecosystem service as well as in alternative energy and resource efficiency to move forward to a greener economy.

The workshop ended with a way forward for the government of PNG’s bilateral work with China through their embassy in Port Moresby to take advantage on their lessons learnt, technology transfer, funding support and capacity building, especially in forestry and agriculture sector and climate change.

Office of Climate Change and Development acting chief executive officer Varigini Badira supported the initiative and said he would work with the Chinese government. 

“The government of PNG will pursue this bilateral arrangement through a memorandum of understanding between the two countries to assist PNG in piloting low carbon growth projects in the country,” Badira said.

Source: The National newspaper.