The Climate Change and Development Authority (CCDA) has achieved yet another milestone achievement today with the signing of an agreement with National Airports Corporation (NAC) to set up a boot at the Jackson International Airport for Green Fee collection.
CCDA’s Acting Managing Director Ms. Debra Sungi said as the government agency responsible for addressing climate change related activities in the country, the urgent need for proactive measures was identified and CCDA has taken decisive steps to reduce carbon footprint, mitigate the effects of climate change in PNG communities, and build resilience to withstand future challenges.
“As we gather here to officiate the opening of our office space here in ensuring that this will enable us to facilitate and collect the green fees, that is purposely for the carbon offset from foreign visitors in terms of offsetting their carbon footprints,” Sungi said.
“We are starting of here with the assistance and cooperation from the National Airports Corporation in achieving this very important milestone under the Marape-Rosso government in ensuring that we as a regulated entity generate the revenue that is needed for us to ensure we implement and we finance our climate adaptation and mitigation actions in the country,” she said.
“We are also thankful to all our development partners who’ve been supporting this process such as EU under the EUFCCB Program and also NAC for providing us with an office space through this agreement.” Sungi said.
Sungi also highlighted that PNG is vulnerable to the devasting impacts of climate change, relatively low contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions and also the rapidly rising sea levels, intensifying natural disasters, and unpredictable weather patterns which threatens the very fabric of communities and ecological balance.
Chief Operation Officer Mr. Manuai Kametan who was present at the signing of the agreement on behalf of the acting Managing Director of National Airports Corporation upon commending CCDA in terms of resource identification and funding said NAC has faced challenging in terms of measuring carbon emissions and such collaboration will go a long way.
“With respect to carbon offsets, we at NAC also have a challenge to be able to measure carbon emissions at our airports throughout our country.
“With such partnership with CCDA we are hopeful that we can mature this relationship and we can perhaps get figures from CCDA as to the kind of measurements of emissions created by the aircrafts that are operating not only at our domestic airports but also from the over-flyers from the airspace as well,” Kametan said.
“We can then can report back as the responsible state to the international community about how we as a state are responding to the effects of climate change.”
The imposing of Green Fees to foreign passport holders is implemented under the Climate Change (Management) Act 2015 (CCMA), which empowers the Climate Change and Development Authority (CCDA) to administer gazetted fees and charges. These fees as outlined in gazette number G328, were determined under Section 38A of the CCMA and will be applicable to various activities and services.
The Green Fee of K50 per person, in particular, is a critical component of this initiative. This fee will be charged on non-PNG citizens arriving or departing the country, with the primary objective of offsetting individual carbon footprints and supporting climate change initiatives. The revenue generated from this fee will be invested in projects that prioritize climate change mitigation, adaptation, building community resilience, mobilizing climate finance and resources.
Today’s launch is part of CCDA’s comprehensive awareness campaign, aimed at informing the general public and our international communities about the fees and categories of exempted foreign passport holder.
The following categories of individual will be exempted from paying the Green Fee:
• Papua New Guinea Passport Holder;
• Crew member of a vessel or ship;
• Diplomats;
• Military personal of a country or members of an international security force either be police of military, corrections and or considered as special agents while on official duties;
• Children under 12 years of age; and,
• Transiting passengers of less than 12 hours.
The collection of the Green Fees will officially commence on 1st July 2025 after all formalities are finalized with all relevant stakeholders.