GREEN FINANCE SUMMIT 2026

Good morning Olgeta

Daba Namona, Gutpela Morning Tru

It is my great pleasure, to warmly welcome our guest of honour, the Right Honourable Prime Minister, James Marape.Honourable ministers, colleagues from government and fellow Pacific central banks,

Bank of Papua New Guinea Board Chair, Sir Robert Igara, leaders from the financial sector, and our development partners.

Welcome to the second Green Finance Summit - here in Port Moresby

It is a pleasure to see so many people here with a shared interest in an issue that is directly shaping Papua New Guinea's future.

When we gathered for the first Green Finance Summit last year, we spent a great deal of time talking about building foundations.

We discussed frameworks, policy settings, partnerships, and the practical steps needed to begin integrating Green Finance into our financial system.

This year, we move the conversation forward - 2026 is not about introducing ideas; it is about implementation.

How do we make Green Finance something real, tangible, and workable - here in Papua New Guinea?

We must be ambitious - and we must also act with urgency. The need to build climate resilience is no longer a future challenge - it is an urgent reality affecting our communities today.

Just last month, Tropical Cyclone Maila caused severe destruction across Milne Bay and Bougainville. It displaced families, damaged critical infrastructure, and tragically claimed 22 lives.

Maila was the eleventh tropical cyclone in our region for this season alone.

At the same time, we are closely watching the emerging El Niño weather pattern, which threatens to put even more pressure on our communities and resources.

These challenges will continue - we know that Papua New Guinea is uniquely exposed to these environmental realities.

Inclusive Green Finance - mobilising capital toward sustainable and inclusive investment - can help build the resilience we need to respond to these realities.

Important progress has been made over the past year.

The Bank of Papua New Guinea, through the Green Finance Centre, has continued to build the financial infrastructure needed to support our transition toward a more sustainable and resilient economy.

Twelve months ago, we committed to developing Green Finance Facilities that will help to channel funding toward sustainable projects across the country.

Today, those facilities are nearing completion and are undergoing final testing before they are rolled out across the country.

Working with the National Energy Authority, we have also worked hard to bring a third Renewable Energy Facility into operation.

This week, we introduce and celebrate some of the important initiatives that will help move Green Finance from policy ambition to practical implementation:

• The Inclusive Green Finance Taxonomy Version 2, which brings clarity to Green Lending while ensuring our banks can interface with international markets.
• Environmental & Social Risk Management Guidelines, designed to make it easier for financial institutions to embed sustainability into daily lending decisions.
• New Green Loan Reporting Standards, to ensure transparency and track real progress.
• The Green Finance Academy, which launches this week to build technical capability across our financial institutions, government agencies, and the private

Later this year, we will also launch the National Centralised Climate Investment Database - to provide a clear, comprehensive picture of climate-sensitive projects funded by both development partners and our dynamic private sector.

These are important steps. But by themselves, frameworks do not move capital toward Green Projects.

Policies alone do not support a small business adapting to climate pressures.

Guidelines do not create investment unless institutions are prepared to act.

Frameworks matter - but practical action across the system matters even more.

Our banks and financial institutions are not bystanders. The financial sector has a central role to play.

You are the key decision-makers because you determine where capital flows, how risk is assessed, and who gets access to finance.

Papua New Guinea will require substantial investment in energy, infrastructure, agriculture, and sustainable enterprise over the coming years.

Our partners at the IFC estimate that PNG requires a staggering 55 billion Kina to meet its climate and development commitments by 2030.

Government and development partners cannot fund this alone. The private sector must be part of the solution.

For our commercial banks, this is a serious business opportunity. But to capture it, Green Finance cannot remain a specialist conversation held only among technical experts.

It must become part of mainstream financial decision-making.

We must also be realistic - transitions of this nature take time.

Our financial institutions are working through new reporting expectations, capability constraints, and legitimate questions about commercial viability. That is entirely normal.

No market gets this perfect from day one. What matters is that our progress is practical, proportionate, and credible and our focus is on building systems that genuinely work in the Papua New Guinean context.

Financial Inclusion must remain at the very heart of this agenda. Green Finance should not become an exclusive domain that benefits only large institutions or well-connected projects.

If we are serious about inclusive development, then this agenda must support ordinary Papua New Guineans.

It must support our rural communities. It must support agriculture. It must support SMEs, which are the backbone of employment and income generation.

It must empower women-led enterprises, which we know are among our most resilient businesses.

And it must include those businesses that may never use the word "Green" to describe themselves, but are making practical investments to improve their efficiency, sustainability, and resilience.

Partnership has been essential to everything we have achieved so far.

We highly value the technical and funding support of our global partners - the IMF, the World Bank, the ADB, and the governments of Australia, New Zealand, and the Republic of Korea.

I also want to explicitly thank the French Development Bank, the International Finance Corporation, and the Global Green Growth Institute for working directly alongside the Green Finance Centre to green our financial system.

Over the next two days, I encourage you to have frank, honest and open conversations.

Ask the difficult questions. Challenge assumptions.

Focus on what is workable and look for practical partnerships that can move projects forward.

Progress in this space will not be measured by the number of policy documents we produce. It will be measured by the quality of our decisions, the credibility of our investments, and the resilience we build into our financial system.

The Bank of Papua New Guinea remains fully committed to supporting this journey.

Financial resilience, sustainable growth, and sound risk management are core central banking concerns.

We cannot achieve our mandate of long-term price stability without building economic and financial resilience.

That is why this work matters. That is why this Summit matters.

Thank you for being here. I wish you a highly productive, constructive, and impactful two days.

It is now my pleasure to officially open the 2026 Green Finance Summit.

Thank you.

Caption: Chairman of Capacity-Building Alliance of Sustainable Investment, Dr Ma Jun was Keynote Speaker at the launch of the Green Finance Summit 2026.

Caption: Group photograph of Green Finance Summit attendees at the Hilton Hotel, Port Moresby, on 27 May 2026.