Papua New Guinea's 1st Energy Sub-Technical Working Committee Meeting

Webinar

The Climate Change and Development Authority (CCDA) is mandated under the Climate Change (Management) Act 2015 to develop and regularly update Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) National Greenhouse Gas Inventory (GHGI) and report to the UNFCCC biannually. The National GHGI is an important tool to understand how much GHG the country is emitting and removing and from what source.

The GHGI is comprised of the following four sectors: 1. Energy; 2. Industrial process and product use; 3. Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use; 4. Waste.  CCDA developed a national GHGI in 2018 and reported to the UNFCCC through the First Biennial Update Report (BUR1) in 2019. CCDA is currently reviewing and updating the national GHGI which will be reported to the UNFCCC in 2021 through the BUR2.

CCDA is also mandated to prepare and submit to the UNFCCC PNG’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). NDCs embody efforts by each country to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. NDCs are the central element of the Paris Agreement and the main climate change policy framework for Parties to the UNFCCC. CCDA submitted PNG’s first NDC to the UNFCCC in 2015 and is currently in the process of developing an enhanced NDC that will be submitted to the UNFCCC by the end of this year (2020).

One of the key sectors in the national GHGI and NDC is the energy sector. Energy statistics will be used to estimate GHG emissions from the energy sector which will then be used to make long term projections and evaluate mitigation options for the country.  These statistics will come from a national energy balance table which PNG currently does not have. As such, CCDA plans on establishing an Energy Sub-Technical Working Committee (ESTWC) consisting mainly of key government and private sector agencies in the energy sector with an aim to develop and regularly update the national energy balance table for PNG.  In addition to this, the ESTWC will provide technical guidance and input in updating the energy sector GHG emissions and developing PNG’s enhanced NDC.

An Initial meeting to establish the ESTWC was held on the 9th of July and was Chaired by CCDA and Co-Chaired by the Department of Petroleum and Energy (Energy Wing). One of the main objectives of the meeting was for key government and private sector agencies in the energy sector to agree to become members of the ESTWC. This was achieved as those present agreed to be members of the ESTWC.

CCDA is called for the first Energy Sub Technical Working Committee (ESTWC) meeting to be held on the 9th of September with the following objectives:

  • Members to endorse the ESTWC Terms of Reference (ToR)
  • To inform members of the short -term plan and long-term plan of the ESTWC
  • To present zero draft of enhanced NDC
  • To inform members of the methodologies for national GHGI
  • For members to agree on the data source to use for the BUR2 GHGI and energy sector modelling for the enhanced NDC