Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 13, 2024 (Lusa) - The prime minister of São Tomé and Príncipe, Patríce Trovoada, said on Wednesday that the country's debt burden has made it difficult to mitigate climate change in the country and praised Portugal's initiative to exchange debt for environmental projects.
"The weight of the debt and the weak contributions of the main polluters have hampered measures to respond to climate change," but a protocol signed with Portugal has provided the country with "a powerful complementary instrument to open up new paths," said Patríce Trovoada, in Baku, Azerbaijan, where he chaired a debate on "debt for nature" at the Portuguese Pavilion at COP29.
The head of the government of São Tomé and Príncipe was referring to an innovative mechanism used by Portugal, which agreed with Cabo Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe, in 2023, to exchange bilateral debt relief for climate investments of the same value, with the agreement signed with Cabo Verde providing for €12 million and São Tomé and Príncipe for €3.5 million.
The debate was an initiative of São Tomé and Príncipe's minister for the environment, Nilda Borges da Mata, who, as chair of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), shared with her counterparts from all the Portuguese-speaking countries the protocol signed with Portugal to exchange debt for environmental projects.
The protocol, which provides for part of the debt to be cancelled in exchange for environmental projects of the same value being implemented in the country, responds, according to Nilda Borges, to the need for the country to "resort to new sources of funding", thus being able to implement "measures in relation to climate change, without increasing the debt".
According to the minister, "rising temperatures and rising sea levels" are two of the visible consequences of climate change in the Portuguese-speaking country, which has already begun "to remove some communities from the coastal zone" and has created "a safe expansion zone" to which four communities have already been transferred.
The conference, which brought together environment ministers from five Portuguese Language Countries, also discussed the protocol signed with Cabo Verde, which according to the Minister for the Environment, Gilberto Silva, "is in a pilot phase" in which "projects are being implemented with funding of €12 million, involving projects in the field of renewable energies", one of which is linked to water.
However, added the minister, "the protocol signed has greater potential", being operationalised through the Environmental Climate Fund" and with other projects in the running, including a photovoltaic plant on Santiago Island.
At the session held today as part of the 29th United Nations Conference on Climate Change, the heads of the delegations from Angola and Mozambique also expressed an interest in signing similar protocols with Portugal.
The Portuguese minister for the environment and energy, Graça Carvalho, said that "these are protocols that have gone very well" and that the Portuguese government "would like the funding increases that will be discussed at the COP to take into account this type of co-operation and funding for developing countries".
The 29th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) began in Baku, Azerbaijan, on 11 November and will run until 22 November.
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