Ulisses Correia e Silva, Cape Verde’s prime minister, and António Costa, prime minister of Portugal, signed on January 23 a memorandum of understanding that formalizes the decision to convert Cape Verde’s debt to Portugal into an Environmental Climate Fund.
The Portuguese and Cape Verdean governments have formalized the decision to convert the African country’s debt to Portugal into a climate fund. The measure represents an important step in Cape Verde’s plan for resilience and adaptation to the effects of climate change.
The moment of formalization of the memorandum took place during the Ocean Race Summit Mindelo, the largest regatta in the world that counted with the intervention of António Guterres, UN secretary-general, and that was the stage for several debates on climate transition and blue economy.
In an interview to Lusa, published in “Observador, Prime Minister Ulisses Correia e Silva stressed that the measure comes at a time when Cape Verde has been facing a period of extreme drought since 2016, and the country’s vulnerable situation was further aggravated by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. According to Reuters, Cape Verde, a member of the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP), will owe about 140 million euros to the Portuguese state and this amount will be transferred to an environmental fund to be used in the archipelago’s adaptation to a new climate paradigm that will include rising sea levels.
This exercise of trading debt for the protection of nature can be a useful mechanism, making it more accessible to create political and social development agendas aligned with the goal of mitigating climate change. This strategy recognizes common but differentiated responsibilities in the fight against climate change and consequently provides funding for adaptation to a country that is less responsible and more vulnerable to the effects of the climate crisis.
The new Fund will also provide Cape Verde with financial means to invest in a clean energy transition. Furthermore, and as the Portuguese prime minister underlined, this is a partnership that marks in a positive way the bilateral cooperation between the two countries, since climate sustainability is not achievable if the transition is not made at a global level.
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