The head of Tonga delegation at the UN climate change conference in Bonn, Germany has described proceedings as successful.
According to Chief Executive Officer, Ministry of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Environment, Climate Change and Communications, Paula Ma’u, Tonga can go back home with a lot taken out of the COP23 in Bonn.
Despite the fact that ‘Loss and Damage’ talks seemed to have hit a hard wall during the week because the big nations and Australia had made things difficult, Ma’u said COP meeting has been successful for Tonga.
“We were able to attend all the meetings we were scheduled to attend, including the negotiations, the side events and the bi-laterals,” he said.
“And we have been able to secure a funding for the Ministry of Internal Affair’s community projects targeted at building resilience within the local communities.
“That was achieved by Mr Samuela Pohiva who led the discussions on that.”
The Tongan delegation also met with donor agencies and funders, including the Green Climate Fund, UNDP and IUCN.
“Although we were disappointed with the way the Loss and Damage talks went and how some of the aspects of the Paris Agreement has been progressing on the local front for us we are happy.
‘At the same time we were happy that we were able to have a Pacific country in Fiji leading the COP23 and we supported that plus the fact that we were able to use the Talanoa sessions, the Pacific way of dialogue.”
The high-level dialogue between the leaders of the respective governments started Wednesday, chaired by Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama of Fiji as COP23 President.
Tonga’s country statement will be delivered today by Ma’u.
Meanwhile, Ma’u presented the MACBIO report for Tonga at the IUCN side event here at the COP23.
He outlined the work that is being done to ensure that Tonga will be able to produce a policy for the Kingdom’s ocean management by 2020.
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