MONITORING DESK
ISLAMABAD: Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa said on Monday that his country had inked a ‘debt-for-nature’ agreement to swap Cape Verde’s debt for investments. The archipelago nation off West Africa’s coast is establishing a climate and environmental fund.
These types of “debt-for-nature” swap deals are emerging between other countries also and are a way to find a way by world leaders to aid in reducing the impact of climate change.
Portugal former colony Cape Verde has suffered loss of biodiversity
Cape Verde is a former Portuguese colony, that has suffered a significant loss of biodiversity loss because of of rising ocean acidity and is at risk from increasing sea levels and. The country owes around 140 million euros to the government of Portugal and more than 400 million euro to its banks and other financial entities.
Read Also: United Nations Deal Calls for $20bln Biodiversity Assistance
Costa said that as an initial step, a total of 12 million euros of debt repayments to the state scheduled until 2025 will be put in the fund. Later on the complete amount of debt that is to be repaid repayments will become part of fund.
Costa maintained that these steps would aid Cape Verde in fighting climate change and investing in energy transition.
