The French Development Agency (AFD) Financial Systems Division has visited PNG for a week to support the Inclusive Green Finance Project (IGFP).
This visit follows AFD’s Greening the Pacific Financial Systems Program (GPFS) €6 million grant agreement, signed between AFD and GGGI in March 2024.
Under this program, AFD has allocated € 2.8 million to support PNG’s IGFP, with the Green Finance Centre (GFC) overseeing its implementation under the Bank of Papua New Guinea (BPNG).
The visit runs from 31 August to 14 September and also includes Fiji. Its key objectives were to validate and close the inception phase of the GPFS program in PNG, and its key deliverables.
The GPFS program aimed to improve the capacity of financial institutions in the Pacific to manage climate risks, mobilise greater capital to meet the costs of climate change and develop transformative financial initiatives in the region.
French Ambassador His Excellency Guillaume Lemoine commended the collaboration between BPNG, GGGI and AFD in the move towards greening PNG’s financial systems and acknowledged Mr. Serra’s visit, further emphasising the importance of the initiative.
“We welcome AFD’s financial expert Damien Serra to PNG to finalise the implementation action
plan of the Green Finance Centre to materialise the commitment taken by our two leaders
President Macron and Prime Minister Marape. Greening financial systems is crucial in the fight
against climate change, and I am proud that France is helping the Government of PNG to tackle
this ambitious task, hence we wish the team involved the best”, said Ambassador Lemoine.
AFD Financial Systems Division Representative Mr. Damien Serra, said “The mission has been an excellent opportunity to take note of all the progress made by BPNG with support from GGGI, operationalizing the Green Finance Centre. We are at the very beginning of a long journey in the transition of the banking industry towards more sustainable practices and I am pleased to see the strong willingness from everyone we met to contribute actively to this transition”, said Mr. Serra.
