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A pity the writer was not in Vanuatu at the time when the national consultation process towards the National Sustainable Plan were underway - took more than 2 years to consult and put this document together. Please come and talk to us before you start falling into the same trap of generalizing about these very unique island nations.

Rohan this is great. Previously I have always had access to journals. However, since semi-retiring I have struggled getting access. I too started to build a list of reputable sites and would have to go into them one by one. However, I did come across two valuable points of access. One is the National Library of Australia. So by joining you can access their electronic journals. They do not have a lot on development but nevertheless there are some. There is often one to two year embargo on access. The second is ANU Alumni. Being a graduate of ANU allowed me to access selected journals. There is a range and it does include Wiley and SAGE journals which for me has been very useful. I am based in Canberra so if you had time I would like to discuss some of this further.

Yes indeed. It was a timely question. Let me also say as IFC is one of the five organisations that make up the World Bank Group, the Bank Group is on track to meet its target of 28% of its lending going to climate action by 2020 and to meeting the goals of its Climate Change Action Plan, which was developed after the Paris Agreement. And as you've noted, in line with our support to developing countries to effectively implement the goals of the Paris Agreement, the World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim has announced the Bank Group will no longer finance upstream oil and gas after 2019. In exceptional circumstances, consideration will be given to financing upstream gas in the poorest countries, where there is a clear benefit in terms of energy access for poor people and the project fits within the countries' Paris Agreement commitments. It's also worth noting that to mobilise more funding for climate, IFC will invest up to $325 million in the Green Cornerstone Bond Fund, a partnership with Amundi, to create the largest ever green bond fund dedicated to emerging markets. This is a US$2 billion initiative aiming to deepen local capital markets and expand and unlock private funding for climate related projects. The fund is already oversubscribed at over US$1 billion.

Ah. It would appear I asked a day too early! World Bank announced an end to finance for oil and gas exploration at the 'One Planet' summit in Paris yesterday. It would appear to be very big news: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/12/uk-banks-join-multinationals-pledge-come-clean-climate-change-risks-mark-carney

Hi again Michael, On 2017 results -- I am still trying to get these. I hope I might have them sometime soon. But I am not sure of this. Kind regards Terence

Hi Michael, That's a very good question -- and a very interesting part of PNG politics. Unfortunately, I don't have those statistics. I would love to gather them in the future though. In the meantime you could use the database and compare the parties that MPs were elected under in 2007 with those that they stood under in 2012 -- this would give you some sense of party changes mid-term, although it would not be ideal. Terence

Looking forward to 2017 results. If possible can you provide the stats of how many MPs switch from one party to another between a parliamentary term?

Many thanks Tom. This analysis is super interesting. In a post-Paris world it seems to me that both public and private finance need to take into account climate risks, and that financing for long-term infrastructure (particularly energy infrastructure) needs to be aligned with global efforts to limit warming to well below 2 degrees (above the long term average). Can you share information about how the IFC itself plans to phase out financing for fossil fuel projects?

Great work, Rohan! I hear you on the challenges we face in the limited settings environment. The one thing we try build in our health field researchers is the ability to identify quality publications. That's an important skill given that not everything free is good quality. In fact sometime the measure of quality comes on the basis of an indexed citation. Being able to pick these citations in search databases is key. Having said that, as you've mentioned some of the development partners try to support developing countries institutions of higher learning with free access to journals that would otherwise have a cost implication (e.g. World Health Organization's Hinari is a good option accessed through institutions ).

Interesting blog Tara and Grant. As you mention, if local level government is relying on these corporate entities for development projects, how can they stand up to them on regulation and governance issues? Surely it just gives these private entities (that in some cases have already proven themselves to be environmental plunderers) more power to behave as they wish. Having spent a lot of time in Indonesia, seeing the gutting of areas of formerly pristine forest in Sumatra (it also occurs elsewhere in the archipelago) for oil palm, the inability of the Indonesian government to control the transboundary smoke haze issue due to deforestation by burning, and the massive impact of these issues on human and environmental health (not to mention the global climate), this seems highly concerning. In Indonesia governance capacity is significantly stronger than PNG, there's also a high level of decentralisation similar to PNG, and protracted issues with corruption. People in Indonesia (on the whole, there are obviously exceptions) are more connected and less remote. Even without the dependence on these logging companies for 'development projects' and better mechanisms for monitoring it has proven very difficult for Indonesia to regulate and rein these companies in. So what awaits for PNG?

Interesting article

I do not think you fully understand what SME is - SME businesses are those that generates less than K1m per year. The government's aim of promoting SME to the people is to put money into their pocket, reduce unemployment and improve their standard of living. Domestically our economy, welfare and employment rate would look good if we harness and take heed of those policies of SME on hand but how about at the broader perspective? Will it increase our foreign reserve? Will our exchange rate rise? Will it improve our GNP and economic inflows? From my understanding this SME policy by the government is good but lacks long term vision. If the government is to promote SME in PNG, the government also need to take into consideration what good impact this on our economy at large. A simple case in point is that if government is encouraging people to grow vegetables in their place which is an SME business, then people can grow vegetables and sold it at domestic market but how will that improve our economy at large? Will it improve our GNP or economic inflows? Will government receive any tax out of it? If the government is really about promoting SME in PNG then it need to help citizens as well. Like for these vegetable growers, government can find a market for them abroad so that our local vegetables growers can market their produce offshore. Those countries with highest value in their currency are best countries which we can sell our produce. This will improve our GNP and inflows and boost our local economy as well.