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Prince Charles Invited To Promote PNG's Climate Change Initiative

By Alexander Rheeney in Port Moresby
Friday: September 28, 2007

Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare has asked United Kingdom’s Prince Charles to help promote his government’s initiative on climate change.

The request was made in New York during the United Nations General Assembly, where Sir Michael gave a statement to world leaders outlining his government’s plans to arrest climate global warming.

Sir Michael relayed the request through Andrew Mitchell, a senior adviser to Prince Charles’ Rainforest Project, whom the Prime Minister met on the sidelines of the UN summit.

Mitchell told Sir Michael that Prince Charles had been closely following PNG’s efforts to highlight the views of developing nations on the global stage.

“Mr Mitchell informed me that Prince Charles has been advocating business leadership on environmental issues and is encouraged by PNG’s contribution to the climate change debate. For this reason, I extended an invitation through Mr Mitchell for Prince Charles to visit PNG at a time convenient to him,” said Sir Michael.

PNG is already feeling the dire effects of global warming with a number of its coastal and island provinces reporting the disappearance of coral atolls.

Its only autonomous government on the once war-torn island of Bougainville has already begun a resettlement program for islanders from the Carteret’s Group, reportedly the world’s first climate refugees.

PNG is a co-chair of the Coalition of Rainforest Nations, which is urging developed states to compensate them through the carbon trade mechanism to retain their forests, which act as carbon sinks that continue to absorb and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Being a co-chair of the Coalition of Rainforest Nations has also boosted the bid by South American state Costa Rica to become a member of the UN Security Council.

Sir Michael said that relationship compelled PNG to support Costa Rica’s attempt join the world’s most powerful council, as its membership could give prominence to the coalition’s initiative on climate change and sustainable forestry.

According to the World Bank, carbon trade can be used to protect endangered rainforests by compensating nations to stop deforestation, which contributes to 20 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions.

World Bank economist Francois Bourguignon in an interview with the BBC last year said carbon trade could help developing states stop deforestation, improve forest governance, and boost rural incomes.

"Global carbon finance can be a powerful incentive to stop deforestation. Compensation for avoiding deforestation could help developing countries to improve forest governance and boost rural incomes, while helping the world at large to mitigate climate change more vigorously,” he said.