The PNG Foreign Affairs Minister Hon. Justin Tkatchenko was invited by the Foreign Affairs and State Counselor of the People’s Republic of China, His Excellency Qin Gang to attend the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) in Boao, Hainan Province, China, on March 29, 2023.

Although Papua New Guinea is not a member to the BFA, Minister Tkatchenko was invited as a special guest in this important meeting. Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) is a high-level international event for 29 member state hosted by the People’s Republic of China, for political, business, and academic leaders from Asia and other continents to discuss key Asians and global issues.

The forum convened to discuss global issue on extreme weather and climate change. Given the opportunity, Minister Tkatchenko raised concern on climate change and its impact on the environment and lifestyle of people in smaller island developing countries. He added that PNG as a carbon emission absorber and third largest rainforest nation in the world, has been a victim of the climate change calamity.

Minister Tkatchenko also stressed on the level of cooperation between the developing countries and industrialized nation in dealing with climate change. He highlighted that there is a lack of commitment and collaboration with the industrialized countries and smaller island developing countries like Papua New Guinea. He expressed that developing small island countries that are subjected to climate change issues need adequate assistance from the industrialized nations in terms of financial and technical assistance to properly manage the climate change negative impacts.

Minister Tkatchenko also addressed the forum on accessibility of funds from the International Organizations like Climate Funds, GGGI and others. He stressed that the long process and system of accessing those funds has prolonged the appropriate responsive measures on negative impacts of extreme weather and climate change.

Minister Tkatchenko informed the meeting that Papua New Guinea support cooperation and collaboration with bilateral partners to address the climate change issues instead of going through the establish multilateral mechanism. Minister Tkatchenko affirmed working with China as a way forward to address the issue through Chinese engagement in building PNG’s capacities and capabilities in dealing with the issue of extreme weather and climate change.