Carbon Trading Deal under Probe‏

Hey guys,

Now the governors have come to realized the importance of the Carbon Trading and have urged the Public Accounts Committee to probe into Office of Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability (OCCES). They said they and their provincial governments should be consulted and involved in the drawing of legislation controlling all facets of the proposed carbon trade, which is awesome. Not like one person dictating and overruling the strategic decisions which should be done collectively.

Clean Development Mechanism and carbon trading

In the Kyoto protocol, industrialised countries have agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Industrialised countries can meet these targets partly by investing in projects in developing countries, though the ‘Clean Development Mechanism’ (CDM). This can be projects that reduce emissions, for example hydropower replacing coal-fuelled plants, or that sequester carbon, for example through forestry. Industrialised countries pay the project carbon credits, varying in price from €5 to €15 per ton CO2.

The OCCES was under the spotlight this week after a proposal to make US$500 million from carbon trade was revealed in the media. One may even not understand or wonder why we are really more concerned about the deal that is at end in our recent discussions. Let me bring to your attention a bit of comparison between minerals sector and the natural vegetation of PNG.

You can talk and boast about mineral sector’s boom and its associated benefits and have less deep feelings of natural vegetation capacity to generate revenues which is not unusual for all PNGans. Maybe because you are ignorant, or you know little about it, or you don’t know anything about it and/or just want to let it pass as it is.

Brethrens, Minerals resources have life expectancies but the forestry sector with its natural vegetation does not since it is a renewable sector that has the potential of generating revenues every year unless somebody wants to bestow the natural vegetation to some Malaysian culprits like Somare signed an agreement with Rimbunan Hijau Group of Companies (known as RH) in the night and bestow to the Malaysian Father the logging business in PNG on a golden plate to enjoy the riches of our natural forest and himself walked away with some millions as if his father owns all the PNG’s Timber land and natural forest.

Emissions trading or carbon trading is an administrative approach used to control pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants. It is sometimes called cap and trade. Therefore what happens is that a central authority (usually a government or international body) sets a limit or cap on the amount of a pollutant that can be emitted.

Companies or other groups are issued emission permits and are required to hold an equivalent number of allowances (or credits) which represent the right to emit a specific amount. The total amount of allowances and credits cannot exceed the cap, limiting total emissions to that level. Companies that need to increase their emission allowance must buy credits from those who pollute less.


This September 2008 NOAA satellite images shows a full disk Western Hemisphere view of the Earth. Canada announced Wednesday plans for a carbon market that could eventually link up with nascent EU and proposed US markets to form a global system for carbon pollution trading.

In our case, we have not yet exposed to the manufacturing sector of the economy and our rate of emission is very low unlike the other sources of emission can be taken into consideration but they are not at a greater amount. Therefore PNG has a great potential of achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants. It makes more economic sense to do carbon trading but that must be done under the sunlight but not under the moonlight where you struggle to find out who is doing what.

As the name suggests, the transfer of allowances is referred to as a trade. In effect, the buyer is paying a charge for polluting, while the seller is being rewarded for having reduced emissions by more than was needed. Thus, in theory, those that can easily reduce emissions most cheaply will do so, achieving the pollution reduction at the lowest possible cost to society.

What the current government trying to do was to sign the deal and walk away with some millions as he does without letting the genuine and legitimate citizens so called stakeholders know of the deal. The idea of the carbon trading deal is not bad but the act or the approach the government is taking is not fair.

Let’s not just narrow ourselves into minerals sector just because it is roaring like a lion in almost all the mountains of the provinces of PNG, but think guys, PNG is covered with natural vegetation. You know how much it will earn you? Right now one carbon credit is equal to one ton of carbon. That means PNG’s natural vegetation alone has a potential to cater for the nation’s budget for a decade if we SAY NO to corrupt practices.

Cheers!

Mathew KAKARAYA,

Nanjing, China.

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