(Above) Carole Dieschbourg, Luxembourg's Minister of the Environment, Climate & Sustainable Development; (below) L-R: Gilberto Silva, Cape Verde's Minister of Agriculture and Environment; Thomas Barbancey, Embassy of Cape Verde in Luxembourg; Credit: Embassy of Cape Verde

During a joint launch meeting on Tuesday 16 March 2021, Luxembourg's Minister of the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development, Carole Dieschbourg, and Cape Verde's Minister of Agriculture and Environment, Gilberto Silva, presented the new Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) of Cape Verde, which was developed with technical assistance from Luxembourg.

The NDC represents the commitments made by each country to reduce its national emissions and adapt to the effects of climate change in order to achieve the long-term objectives of the Paris Agreement.

In her intervention by video message, Minister Carole Dieschbourg firstly congratulated Cape Verde for its ambitious commitments to the fight against climate change (committing to reduce inational emissions by 20% before 2030). She emphasised that the country is now one of the first to have updated their NDC, as required by the Paris Agreement of which both Luxembourg and Cape Verde are signatories.

Luxembourg's Environment Minister then recalled the importance of the collective fight against the climate crisis which is "undoubtedly one of the greatest environmental, social and economic challenges which humanity has never had to face", specifying that "for this crisis, there is no vaccine”. She also reaffirmed that Luxembourg will continue to support Cape Verde over the next few years in the implementation of certain key mitigation and adaptation measures identified in the NDC, which “will make it possible to demonstrate through the example that development and environmental sustainability can go hand in hand”.

Climate action makes up one entire part of the 2021-25 Indicative Cooperation Programme between Luxembourg and Cape Verde, signed by the respective governments last July and which is entitled “Development - Climate - Energy". In support of a whole-of-government approach aimed at strengthening coherence and synergies between development actions and other policy areas, including environmental and climate issues, Luxembourg's Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development budgeted for €10 million through the Climate and Energy Fund for Climate Action in Cape Verde.