"What we are doing (...) is a very important sample of data and information collection, to promote the gathering of this information in this observatory, in order to transmit to the science and society in general a greater knowledge about the problem climate change, "said Ricardo Campos, in an interview with the Lusa agency.
What the Forum intends with this project is "to allow science and public decision makers to better understand the phenomenon and to have a much more concentrated notion of what the problems are and to have indicators of extraordinary importance for decision making", he said.
For that, the Energy and Climate Forum is counting on a financing from the Portuguese Environmental Fund and should start this year.
"The application has already been submitted and we are waiting at all times" for funding to be guaranteed, said the president of that entity, established in 2019 and publicly presented on 31 January this year.
The information for the observatory is collected, partly through people who are in the nine Portuguese-speaking countries and partly based on satellite data.
"By the end of 2020, we expect to make its public presentation with an initial monitoring of at least 35 indicators, among which have to do with adaptation and also with mitigation", said Ricardo Campos, for whom the information "is guaranteed to departure, because the Energy and Climate Forum already brings together 1500 members, with various levels of training ".
Regarding other forum projects, the president highlighted three, who he hopes will be on the ground "by the end of the first quarter of 2021".
One of them is the installation of solar cookers in Guinea-Bissau, which "can help raise awareness of the need for less deforestation in the country and, at the same time, so that renewable energies can be used for other activities than production. of electricity ".
The solar cookers will reach seven communities in that African country, he specified, referring to the advantages of this resource, "namely the non-exposure to smoke and other pollutants with a very negative influence on health".
This project "has the participation of the various countries, in order also to deepen solidarity and cooperation between all".
Another project is the initiative "A house, a lamp", which is intended for São Tomé and Príncipe, Timor-Leste and Cape Verde and which, according to Ricardo Campos, aims to bring electricity to places where there is no coverage of the electricity grid .
"We want to make mini-microgeneration systems so that, at least, there is lighting in the houses so that children can study at home or charge a cell phone at night. The objective is to cover around a thousand houses," he said.
To this is added the mangrove recovery project, which results from an initiative by Brazil, Angola and Mozambique to requalify 700 hectares of mangroves in a first phase, but about which he did not provide details.
Ricardo Campos also wants another project to be continued, that of the "Guardians", which started before the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic in Equatorial Guinea and Cape Verde, but which, because of it, was stopped.
"It is a project to mobilize and raise awareness among civil society, especially among the youngest. Therefore, in a first phase, the forum chose to carry it out with schools at various levels of education, from secondary to universities. But with the confinement had to stop ", explained the president of that entity, which has nothing to do with the CPLP, although he applied for associate observer in that community.
Funding for all projects "is based on multilateral systems, but also on contributions in terms of partners and sponsors for some of them", specifying that, in addition to the Portuguese Environmental Fund, "applications are being prepared for European Union programs and of the United Nations ".
