São Tomé and Príncipe develops plan for Climate Action transparency

In São Tomé and Príncipe took place, in May, a three-day workshop for the capacity building of technicians from several state institutions and non-governmental organisations with the aim to prepare an action plan on Climate Action transparency.

This workshop, organised by the Ministry of Infrastructure, Natural Resources and Environment, in partnership with the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), was a governmental commitment to act against climate change.

Adelino Cardoso, Minister of Infrastructure, Natural Resources and Environment recalled that "climate change is one of the most serious global, national and regional challenges on which the future of humanity and our people depends on".

"We must prioritise strengthening the climate governance, which will help us achieve our goals and improve the effectiveness of our programmes and policies, and consequently help us improve decision-making and resource allocation," the Minister stressed during the workshop opening.

The country has been strongly affected by the impacts of climate change, which is why there has to be measures to minimise the consequences for the most vulnerable populations.

"[São Tomé and Príncipe] has political tools to meet the demands at global, regional, national and local levels with emphasis on the National Action Plans for renewable energy and energy efficiency, protection of biodiversity and environmental sanitation aligned with the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)," stressed the minister.

In this sense, Adelino Cardoso recalled the NDC 2021 updates, in which "ambitious targets were included to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increasing renewable energy production by 50% until 2030, and developing climate resilience”.

This workshop was organised because "the incorporation of the climate change theme implies that it needs to exist strong institutions, and institutional arrangements adapted to the national reality and skilled technicians to implement concrete actions against the country's high vulnerability to climate change", underlined São Tomé's Director General for Environment and Climate Action, Sulisa Quaresma.

As such, this workshop aimed to provide skills to manage, report and verify practices on transparency on climate change and, likewise, to promote the exchange of experiences between stakeholders and the strengthening of communication and transparency capacities, obligations aimed at achieving the Paris Agreement.

At the end of the workshop, the Director General of Environment and Nature Conservation of the Autonomous Region of Príncipe, Analice da Mata, stressed that one of the commitments made by the country, under the Paris Agreement, is to report emissions data, in line with the uniformity of the other countries. However, according to Analice Mata, the national documents already contain guidelines on the main activities that the country intends to promote mainly "for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions," this being the "focal point of this meeting".