PNG faces huge challenge in holding big polluters accountable for carbon emissions

For a developing country like PNG, raising her voice at the global level on carbon emissions will continue to be a huge challenge.

Acting Managing Director of the Climate Change and Development Authority, Debra Sungi told media last week at the National Press Club.

She was asked how effective PNG is in holding to account big polluters of carbon emissions.

She said the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) convention is the only avenue to raise this voice, and it requires a collective voice from other parties however, under the Paris Agreement, parties are required to report on National Determined Contributions (NDCs).

“At the international forums there’s no legal platform to speak to big polluters in order to comply with National Determined Contributions (NDC) targets we have,” Ms Sungi said.

She added that according to the Paris Agreement it does allow the parties to develop laws to hold accountable sectors to ensure there is a proper mechanism in place to assess the volume of emissions they cause.

“For us PNG we have been established through our Climate Change Management Act 2015. Actually we are trying to regulate and obviously we started off through our NDC regulations for we have provisions that allows us as authority in biannually to collect reports from all the sectors including mining industry for the carbon emissions they cause. 

“There are penalties attached if high emissions caused. That’s from the national level,” Ms Sungi added.

The acting managing director has reiterated that big polluters do submit biannual reports as per required by the Paris Agreement but for PNG to hold them accountable requires collective views and efforts from more parties, and not just PNG.