Papua New Guinea (PNG) Carbon Trade Highly Suspicious‏

Papua New Guinea is playing a lead role in the United Nations program, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD). The logging industry describes REDD as an attempt to coax PNG into restricting logging in return for cash. Even though a global emissions scheme has yet to be defined - which makes measuring carbon credits impossible - the Government insists that it will handle potential carbon trading deals on behalf of the resource owners.

The issue of carbon trading requires more clarification before any deals can proceed as it will cause enormous frictions between the Government and the landowners. However, the Director of the Office of Climate Change & Carbon Trade, Mr Theo Yasause claims ownership is not a sticking point and that the state has absolute control over the resources. Once the landowners are signed up, it doesn't give the landowners the legitimacy, only the state has the legitimate authority.

Mr Yasause claims his office will have the carbon traders registered with the office. He said he will do due diligence checks on any trader that's coming in and does not want to deal with any middlemen. He wants to deal directly with credible business traders who want to do business with his office and the people of PNG.

The Government has failed terribly in the forestry sector, and in the oil and gas sector. There is no equitable distribution of benefits coming from these resource developments and so at this early point in time, when the office of climate change is not fully set up, I wonder how well Yasause understands climate change and carbon trade.

Landowners have already lost trust in the Government because it has failed to address issues of governance and transparency in the process of dealing with all these things. At the moment the Government does not have any policy framework for carbon trade and climate change in PNG. Therefore, the concept of compensating developing countries for not cutting down their forests is proving difficult. Furthermore, PNG also wants money for increasing its forest carbon stocks as well as avoiding deforestation.

Below is a list of facts to clarify any doubts surrounding the desperate manner in which the Office of Climate Change & Carbon Trade was set up by the Government.

1. Currently the Office of Climate Change & Carbon Trade has no Legal and Policy framework in place to govern its operation and dealings. Therefore any commitments that OCC&CT has made so far have no effect. All proclamations made by Mr Yasause have been made on the assumption of authority.

2. The position of Director of Office of Climate Change & Carbon Trade was never advertised publicly. Mr Yasause was hand-picked and place by Somare for convenience shake.

3. Doubts are still circulating whether Mr Yasause's field of profession is of science oriented in the likes of Biology, Chemistry, Physics, or Environmental Science which the office in concern calls for.

4. Mr Yasause and his Office work in isolation, and do not attempt to utilize any services of prominent scientists in the country who are specialized in climate change. Only in recent times for the Poland meeting did they sought assistance.

5. Campus buffoons are believed to have been employed and could still be there.

6. Newspaper reports say Mr Yasause's staff going on a frenzy, scrambling for information on Climate Change all over the place. A clear indication of incompetent, inexperienced and unqualified personnel holding positions in the office.

7. Allegations have been raised that a known criminal is/was employed by the office.

8. Confusing public notices have been run in the media by the office to divert public attention, and create opportunities for middleman to handle REDD funds and make it miserable for the real resource owners.

9. Two companies have been issued certificates to trade carbon credits to date. Why the hurry when there is no Law and Policy framework in place. A pertinent question is, do they have forests themselves? You cannot be riding on other people's forest resources.

10. Starting from the top (Political & Administrative) down to the tea boy/ enquiries clerk, the entire office is polluted by one ethnic group. A group of 'carbon cowboys' working in an office that belongs to the Nation is a slap-on-the-face, as this does not reflect any true representation of the resource owners of PNG.

By Kipali Kana

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