Representatives of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) today called for direct and swift funding for the energy transition, according to the ‘2030 Energy and Climate Co-operation Roadmap in the CPLP’ being debated in São Tomé.
‘Our 2030 co-operation roadmap cannot be a simple technical instrument. It has to be a living guide that combines energy planning for the energy transition with climate justice, economic development with inclusion, innovation with identity and, above all, transversality,’ argued the president of the Lusophone Renewable Energy Association (ALER) at the opening of the event.
For Mayra Pereira, the CPLP roadmap has to ‘open doors to direct, rapid funding adapted to the reality’ of the member states’ energy transition plans.
‘What’s more, it must support the creation of national platforms that align local priorities with international funding, promoting effective coordination between governments, development partners, the private sector and civil society so that resources reach where they are really needed,’ she added.
The ALER president argued that the mobilisation of climate finance should also be accompanied by processes that help tackle the burden of public debt in CPLP countries.
‘It is urgent to think of innovative solutions, such as debt-for-climate-action swap mechanisms, for debt structuring linked to environmental targets and the integration of climate action into the national macroeconomic strategy, to ensure that the fight against climate change does not worsen fiscal sustainability, but rather serves as an active part of the response to the climate crisis,’ she argued.
The Minister of Infrastructure of São Tomé and Príncipe, Adelino Cardoso, considered that ‘climate change is one of the greatest threats’ of this era, ‘with a harmful impact’ that also afflicts the CPLP countries, which is why he argued that ‘cooperation is an essential tool for controlling it’.
Lusa
