Cape Verde and Portugal sign agreement to transform debt into investment in the Climate and Environment Fund

The Protocol between Cape Verde and Portugal aimed at financing the Climate and Environment Fund, was signed on June 22nd in Lisbon by the Finance Ministers of the two countries, Olavo Correia and Fernando Medina, in the presence of the Heads of both Governments, Ulisses Correia e Silva and António Costa. With this agreement, Portugal commits to convert 12 million euros of Cape Verde's debt to Portugal to support funding and invest in the country's climate transition, until 2025.

According to the Portuguese prime minister, in 2025, the "success of this operation" will be assessed, and he is certain that it will be "positive", which could lead to the debt conversion mechanism being extended to the remaining, "in its entire maturity and in its total amount, which is around 140 million euros”.

For the Cape Verdean prime minister, this historic agreement "is innovative and impactful. "It is an agreement for an important contribution to the Cape Verde Climate and Environment Fund and will be applied in investments to increase the country's resilience so that we can achieve the Sustainable Development Goals", Ulisses Correia e Silva said.

"I reaffirm that we have ambitious goals and objectives: by 2030, we want to achieve more than 54% penetration of renewable energy in the energy production and storage, we want to achieve 100% energy production through renewable energy in 2040, 100% of electric mobility in 2050 and achieve carbon neutrality in 2050," he said.

"That requires investments. Our overall investment package in the energy transition is 520 million euros, and about 65% of this will be private funding and investment under a public-private partnership scheme," he stated.

"We have reasons, from now on, to make a different speech at the next COP, in Abu Dhabi. We have managed to confirm and implement the call of the United Nations Secretary General, António Guterres, for climate action. We are taking action", concluded Ulisses Correia e Silva.

"This is the first step in a journey that we want to take together. We have signed a particularly innovative document on a global scale (...). An agreement that allows accelerating the climate transition and promoting green and blue economies," said the Portuguese Prime Minister, António Costa, indicating that the 12 million euros is the amount that would be reimbursed by the archipelago, as capital, under the Contract for Consolidation of Cape Verde's Debt to Portugal, signed in 2022.

Source: Cape Verde's Government