The Minister for Environment, Conservation and Climate Change Simo Kilepa, while attending the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York, handed over its chairmanship of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations (CfRN) to Honduras last week.
Minister Kilepa congratulated Honduras President Madam Xiomara Castro and Minister Lucky Medina on behalf of Prime Minister James Marape, for taking on the baton as the incoming CfRN Chair.
He also thanked CfRN Secretariat Executive Director Kevin Conrad, Ms Bietta and hardworking CfRN team for their support to PNG in the last few years during its chairmanship.
“Your vision to mobilize financial support for rainforest countries in the last two decades started with inspiration from our former founding Prime Minister Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare and I was privileged to be part of this legacy. I encourage the CfRN team to continue the good work under chairmanship of Honduras to progress the REDD+ mechanism,” Minister Kilepa said.
“As the outgoing CfRN Chair, I am pleased to state here that during our time we did our part to address key areas;
- Compliance under Paris agreement and full participation in the global carbon market for rainforest countries.
- Open up United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNCCC)-graded credits up to global purchasers.
- Secure a much higher price compared to the price floor provided by Green Climate Fund and other countries.
- Facilitate direct income to local communities for sustainable livelihoods, which will be transparent to the buyer and the community;
- Minimizes the chances of double-counting and
- Increase efficiency and accuracy of accounting through a central trading platform for all CfRN countries.
“For PNG, with the recent launch of the Safeguards Information System, we now have successfully completed all key elements required by UNFCCC to participate in the REDD+ compliance market. Through the Chairmanship of Honduras, I would like to encourage focus on the mobilization of private sector participation and financing,” Minister Kilepa added.
It was agreed that as a member of CfRN, PNG will continue partnership and provide support to fully realize Result Based Payments for the collective benefit of rainforest communities and indigenous people.
