Africa-Press – Cape verde. Two Cape Verde environmental associations today regretted not being heard by the Government when preparing the country’s participation in the United Nations climate summit (COP28), which kicks off on Thursday in the United Arab Emirates.
“Cape Verde has practically repeated the speeches at these meetings because it does not listen to all civil society and does not prepare citizens, in the country and in the diaspora, to pay more attention to these summits”, said Paulo Ferreira, president of Quercus Cabo Verde, in statements to Lusa.
Collecting contributions from non-governmental organizations (NGOs), private and public entities “would be a way of ensuring that the Cape Verdean delegation would be well prepared for COP28”, he added.
According to the official, it would be important to “finance the participation of representatives of NGOs and civil society”, as well as “organize conferences and workshops to discuss climate issues” in the country.
“It is also important that the Government of Cape Verde promotes a public debate on climate issues”, which “would help to increase the population’s awareness of the importance of climate action and build a consensus on the country’s priorities”.
The president of the Association for the Defense of the Environment and Development (ADAD), Januário Nascimento, argued that the organization he leads should also have been heard in the preparation of COP28, but this did not happen.
“There has been work, but communication from the Government has failed”, he said, speaking to Lusa.
The official considered that “the Government lacks more communication” and promoting “the involvement of civil society”.
“For example, this COP28 should serve to involve the entire society, private sector and associations to discuss important issues for Cape Verde”, among which he highlighted the management of water for human use.
ADAD will be able to be represented through partners, said Januário Nascimento, while he himself will follow the work remotely, via the Internet.
The official said he is certain that the country “would win if there was more involvement, from everyone”, including the different ministries, in addition to Agriculture and Environment.
The environmentalist referred to the role that the Ministries of Foreign Affairs (MNE) and Finance have in climate action.
“Everything revolves around Finance”, he added, adding that “this is not just a Government problem. Society and the private sector must do their part” and must be called upon to do so.
“I would like to make a strong appeal to the Government so that the other COPs are better prepared, with greater involvement from the whole of society and other ministries. ADAD was not heard, the other organizations were not involved either and what I see in other countries is that the organizations are integrated into the delegations”, he summarized.
Lusa tried to get a reaction from the Government of Cape Verde, but this was not possible.
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