Dili, February 20, 2025 (Média Democracia) – The NGO of Core Group Transparany Timor-Leste (CGT-TL) held a National Dialogue on Climate Change activity together with the National Environmental Licensing Authority, Public Institutions (ANLA.IP) Local Authorities and also students to disseminate information on climate change and climate finance in Timor-Leste.
In his opening remarks, the representative of the National Environmental Licensing Authority, Public Institutions (ANLA.IP), Director of the Environmental Industry Union (UFA), Norberto M. de Araújo said that this moment is very important for ANLA.IP to talk about the global issue of climate change facing the world including Timor-Leste.
“Climate change is not only happening in Timor-Leste, but also throughout the world and is an important focus for all of us, therefore through this workshop, we come together to discuss clearly so that we can all find solutions on how to mitigate this climate change issue.” Said the Representative of the National Environmental Licensing Authority, Public Institutions (ANLA.IP), Norberto M. de Araújo
He hopes that this discussion can be a guideline for all participants, for that he asked participants to have a clear discussion in order to find solutions and mitigation for climate change.
On this occasion, the National Coordinator of the CGT-TL NGO, Jemicarter Moniz dos Reis, said that today’s meeting was to disseminate information about climate change to local governments and also students because most of them do not yet know about this issue.
“Often our communities and authprities are just hear, but they don’t know what climate change is and what climate finance is, so through this workshop in particular the speakers shared information about climate change and also with COP 29 that has been done in Ajar Viser.” Said the CGT-TL Coordinator
He added that as a civil society, his role is very important in the issue of climate change because it is caused by human attitudes and nature.
“We know that human actions, other actions are natural, because we never know when nature will happen, so for us as humans when we damage the environment, especially burning land, it will result in climate change which can increase emissions.” He added.
Therefore, we need to look at this problem, because there are so many incidents, so we need to provide information to local governments, communities, and students so that they can intend to practice it in their daily lives.
CGT Timor-Leste continues to strive to collaborate with the government to be responsible for climate change issues, especially on climate finance because we see that international agencies always provide very large funds to Timor-Leste, especially on climate finance.
He informed that as a civil society, his party continues to track and monitor funds, whether the funds are used for climate change finance activities or not, because most of the reports say that climate finance is beneficial to the population, but most of the tracking shows that the community does not benefit from it.
He emphasized that the funds received by CGT were support from Oxfam Timor-Leste, the amount depending on the plans and programs of the NGO itself.
“The funds we receive are support from Oxfam in Timor-Leste who have supported us so far. Every year, depending on our plans, the programs we deliver, sometimes it can be added and sometimes it can be reduced, I don’t know how much, depending on the program plan we have,” he said.
The truth is CGT has Corpe Transparency, the principle is to be responsible for public funds and also take into account social transparency, so CGT has a program called, “open the book” to see the problems of people with disabilities, especially analyzing the benefits of public funds for people with disabilities or not, also related to the national action plan in each ministry, the other is climate finance, climate finance is also to see climate change and make tracking to climate finance itself.
As the Head of Seloi Malere Village, António dos Santos Loco said that as a community figure who is close to the community and is very concerned about this issue, we are jointly advocating so that conditions, especially climate change, do not become an increasing problem in our community.
“Through this mini workshop that has been implemented, I think community leaders can attend, besides that, all sub-district heads who are currently actively handling the issue of climate change, this is a very important lesson, I can use it as a sharing material for us as community leaders to take and explore from this problem to see the problems related to environmental permits in our village or sub-village.” Said the Head of Seloi Malere Village
He said that because currently these issues are happening but not all people have insight, this is reflected in reports on climate change or environmental issues, therefore this workshop is a very important lesson that can be conveyed to the community.
Reported by : Estefania
Picture by : Estefania