The world has pledged to limit the increase in global temperature to 1.5ºC compared to pre-industrial levels. But how do we know if the collective effort of countries is being enough? What is climate transparency? What is being done at government and local level to implement the Nationally Determined Contribution? And what is the role of youth in this story that is now being written? Looking at the intersection between climate and gender, consulting IMC’s issue on environment and climate and boarding the world’s most advanced scientific ship, we find out more in this seventh issue of the Cape Verde Climate Portal newsletter.

We’re hearing more and more about transparency. Transparency of public accounts, transparency of management, transparency of the sea, transparency in data collection, climate transparency.

The Paris Agreement established the Transparency Framework, which is supported by a set of modalities, procedures and guidelines that allow all Parties that have signed it to report on progress in implementing their Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) – the guiding document for all national climate action in terms of both mitigation (reducing greenhouse gas emissions) and adaptation (creating climate resilience), in a comparable way so that joint progress in limiting the global temperature increase to 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels can be assessed.

This is reported in the Biennial Transparency Report (BTR) and Cape Verde is complying with its obligations, having recently started the process of preparing it with a view to submitting it later this year.

More than that, in this newsletter we cover the intersection between gender and climate, the results of the first meeting of the Interministerial Council for Climate Action, chaired by the Prime Minister, and we also start talking about local climate action, bringing examples from Mosteiros and Ribeira Brava, where we cover topics such as sustainable fishing and fighting forest fires, respectively.

Near the end, we go through the Continuous Multi-objective Survey, the IMC, which is produced by INE and has a chapter on the environment and climate change, showing the impacts that climate change is having on Cape Verdean households, including by dry haze, droughts, and heat, for example.

But this newsletter also takes us further afield and our highlight is the article “A Leagues from the Surface: Science, Dreams and Submersion”. To do this, we go aboard the world’s most advanced oceanographic research vessel, the OceanXplorer, and with Cape Verdean scientists and students we cross new frontiers of knowledge with a view to climate action. As Elizandro Rodrigues, IMar technician, said: “As we reach 500 meters deep, each movement connects us more deeply with the ocean, making us realize that we are at the epicenter of an immense natural laboratory, where the flow of discoveries has the power to rewrite our understanding of marine ecosystems and their interactions with the planetary balance. This unique and transformative experience offers us a rare window into deep biodiversity and its vital impact on the future of our planet.”

Author

Inês Mourão, Coordinator of the Climate Action Now Program