PNG can potentially benefit from carbon trade, forest landowners must be aware of how they can.

PAPUA New Guinea has the prospect of benefiting from the global carbon market worth billions of kina both through voluntary and compliance market scheme, the World Bank said.

The bank said in a report that the benefits of carbon market could be under the reduced emissions of deforestation and degradation (REDD) and REDD + Partnership initiative, which the government, through the office of climate change and development (OCCD), is working on the policy legislative framework to strategise the benefits.

The global carbon trade market is projected to reach US$144 billion (K407 billion) by the end of this year, according to the bank’s 2010 report on state and trends of the carbon market.

It said the market grew to US$144 billion (K407 billion) last year, up 6% from 2008, despite enduring its most challenging year to date. 

The bank said the global economic crisis negatively impacted both demand and supply sides and as industrial output plummeted, the demand for carbon assets fell.
The report was released last month at a carbon expo in Cologne, Germany.
It also said that on the supply side, the reduction in access to capital made it difficult for many project developers to lock in financing.

As a consequence, project origination ground came to a halt.
Director of World Bank environment department, Warren Evans, said: “The annual state and trends report has become a flagship publication.”

The bank continues to provide the world with objective and well-informed assessments of the carbon market. 

The authors have again succeeded in accurately measuring the pulse of the market in an extremely difficult year.

Alexandre Kossoy, co-author of the report, said: “Ironically, the same issues that have hindered the project-based mechanisms may ultimately be the silver lining that sets the stage for a stronger post-2012 market.”

Source: The National newspaper