Papua New Guinea PM vows to return to UN climate talks

By AFP/Laura Chung

Papua New Guinea's prime minister promised Tuesday to return to UN climate summits after boycotting this year's talks, but called for safeguarding forests to be a bigger priority.

The jungle-clad Pacific nation skipped November's climate talks in Azerbaijan, with its foreign minister describing them as a "waste of time" that achieved nothing.

Prime Minister James Marape told AFP his country intended to return to the discussion for the COP30 summit next year in year Brazil, home of the Amazon, the world's largest tropical rainforest.

"Next year we will be in Brazil," he said in an interview, vowing to push for countries that leave a large carbon footprint to pay for forest conservation.

Conversations about climate change were "totally in vain" unless they focused on forest conservation and resource management, the Pacific leader said.

"It is the forestry that clears the atmosphere of carbon and carbon footprints," Marape said.

"Forestry is close to our heart."

Papua New Guinea will support an Australian bid to co-host COP31 in 2026 along with Pacific nations if forest conservation and management rank highly in discussions, Marape said.

'Lungs of the Earth'

The island of New Guinea is home to the third-largest expanse of rainforest on the planet, according to conservation group WWF, and has long been celebrated as one of the "lungs of the Earth".

In November, Papua New Guinea boycotted the UN climate summit in Azerbaijan because the hosts did not "give big respect to forest business owners", Marape said.

Impoverished, flanked by ocean, and already prone to natural disasters, the country is considered highly vulnerable to the unfolding perils of climate change.

It is one of five Pacific nations involved in a pivotal International Court of Justice case that will soon test whether polluters can be sued for neglecting their climate obligations.

But while Pacific nations are among the most climate-threatened areas on the planet, Australia remains one of the world's leading exporters of coal and gas.

A decision on Australia's bid to host COP31 has been delayed because Turkey is refusing to drop its rival campaign -- dragging out the selection process into 2025.

The COP -- or conference of parties -- is the top United Nations climate change conference, an annual summit in which nations look to determine legally binding climate commitments.