Guinea-Bissau’s President expressed confidence that the Oceans Conference, which began in Lisbon, will establish “a new paradigm” in ocean protection and recalled that his country is already facing the challenges of climate change.
“My country, Guinea-Bissau, part mainland and part island, with an archipelago of more than 80 islands (…) has the best potential in the field of fisheries, tourism, a multifaceted blue economy (…) But my country is not exactly an ecological oasis,” said Umaro Sissoco Embaló, in his speech at the plenary session of the United Nations Conference on Oceans, which began yesterday in Lisbon.
The Guinean head of state said that Guinea-Bissau has “the same problems, the same challenges that, with greater or lesser severity, face the other countries” with identical characteristics, namely the erosion of coastal areas.
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“This is why the viability of the Paris Agreement is very important to us. We are doing everything to build an economy that is friendly to the health of our rivers, friendly to the Atlantic, which is the ocean that bathes my country,” he said.
The President also stressed that the greatest hope of Guinea-Bissau lies in its youth, which has “more and more environmental awareness”, “because effectively the future belongs to the youth.
Saluting the Governments of Portugal and Kenya, co-organizers of the Oceans Conference, Sissoco Embaló said he was “certain that, due to the quality of its organization and even more so due to its ambitious scientific and technological agenda, (…) the Oceans Conference will establish a new paradigm”.
“And this new paradigm will certainly drive innovative solutions to one of humanity’s greatest challenges: to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, the seas, the marine resources for sustainable development”.
Stressing that the oceans “constitute the largest ecosystem on the planet,” the Guinean leader warned that “no sustainable development will be conceivable if the crucial role of the oceans is not part of its concept”.
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“This is why the motto ‘Save the Oceans, Protect the Future’ is entirely appropriate, pertinent. I would even say that it is a really pressing imperative,” said Sissoco Embaló, in a reference to the motto of the United Nations Conference on the Oceans.
More than 7,000 people, including representatives from 140 countries, some at the highest level, are participating as of today in Lisbon in the second United Nations Oceans Conference, the largest event ever dedicated to the theme.
After the first conference took place five years ago in New York, Portugal, together with Kenya, is organizing the second meeting under the slogan “Save the Oceans, Protect the Future.
