International travelers to pay K50 for carbon offset footprints before departing PNG

Climate Change and Development Authority [CCDA] and National Airports Corporation [NAC] launched the Green Fee Card that will be issued to Foreign Passport Holders [excluding 6 categories] to pay for the carbon offset footprints before leaving the shores of PNG.

They will pay a total of K50. It will be paid at the Green Fee Counter towards the far right end of the Jacksons International Terminal. The funds generated will assist CCDA to carry out climate change mitigation and adaptation programs in the country.

Acting Managing Director of CCDA Debra Sungi is confident that this important program will be ongoing because it's a great initiative for the authority to generate revenue to fund its programs to fight against the impacts of climate change.

"This year, CCDA was allocated approximately K8.9 million. However, about 7 million goes toward personnel costs, leaving only K2 million for actual project implementation. This is highly insufficient for our needs.

"With the green fee and other anticipated taxes and non-tax revenues, we hope to raise around K11 million in just the first six months. These projections are based solely on collections from Jacksons International Airport.

"We plan to expand this program to other international airports and seaports across the country,"Sungi said.

Ms Sungi said, " For a start we will be processing the fees manually due to the current limitations in integrating the system into our domestic ticketing platforms. Once that’s resolved, the process will be incorporated either through ticketing or visa arrangements.

"This kind of fee is already active in many countries. It's part of our mitigation actions and a financing mechanism to support adaptation efforts, particularly in tourism and biodiversity conservation," Sungi said.

Ms Sungi added that PNG Passport holders, Crew members of a vessel or ship, Military personnel of a company or a member of an international security force, either police or military, children under 12 years of age, and Transiting passengers for less than 12 hours will be exempted.

She said the model CCDA adopted is based on the Pacific region, particularly the Eastern Pacific, though this practice is implemented worldwide to offset carbon footprints.

Meanwhile, according to the Standard Operating Procedure [SOP] agreement with NAC, all payments go directly to the Consolidated Revenue Fund managed by the Department of Finance.

Ms. Sungi said neither CCDA nor NAC handles the funds directly.