"The General Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which when it meets has around 1,200 deputies from the 178 countries that make it up, has never taken place in a Portuguese-speaking African country. Next year it will be in Angola. difference", said, in Praia, Portuguese deputy Duarte Pacheco, who has been leading that organization for 16 months.
The meeting in Angola, he explained, should take place between October and November 2023, concluding Duarte Pacheco's term as president of the UIP, a multilateral organization founded in the 19th century.
In Praia, over the last two days, the group of parliamentarians from the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) at the UIP met, for the first time, in a meeting that served to debate the "Climate Changes Faced with the Challenges of Sustainable Development".
"Neither before the independence of all Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa, nor in the 40 years that they have been independent, has there ever been a meeting specifically aimed at Portuguese-speaking countries. Well, this is because there was no such sensitivity, but that now exists, at the head of the Interparliamentary Union", said the Portuguese deputy, elected to that position in November 2020.
"One of the good things about this mandate, or this position, is that there is no chance of reelection and there is no chance of reelection, because as a politician I know very well how we all function. re-elected, we may tend to make certain compromises to make this re-election easier. This is not the case. And as there is no election, I can do even what I believe should be done. And that is why this great attention to speaking countries Portuguese", he added.
For Duarte Pacheco, the issue of climate change, which motivated the approval at this two-day meeting, of the Praia Declaration, has been the priority of the mandate, from the outset the need to "finance these changes for a sustainable economy".
"That has to be supported, namely, by the developed countries. There is no other way to act. If you ask me, but this has to be in such a way that there is good 'governance'. Then, of course. help and then end up in someone's Swiss account, no. It's really to be used to change economies to clean economies. And that's where developed countries have a responsibility that they have to put into practice, for the good of all", he explained. , giving as an example the needs of Cape Verde - host of this meeting - in the transition to renewable energies and the effects of these changes, namely more than four years of severe drought.
"And we have to do it, because if we set the agenda, developed countries end up coming behind. Financing all these operations, that is the transition to a clean economy, has costs. much higher, but the costs that exist have to be borne by those who were the big polluters", concluded Duarte Pacheco.
