Sao Tome: Global warming reduces land mass by 4% – president

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Sao Tome: Global warming reduces land mass by 4% – president

7:45 CAT | 03 Nov 2021

Image: UN Climate Change Conference UK 2021

Sao Tome and Príncipe has lost 4% of its territory due to the rise in sea level, a consequence of climate change, the president of Sao Tome and Príncipe said on Tuesday today at the 26th United Nations Climate Conference (COP26), in Glasgow.

Carlos Vila Nova said that the island of Príncipe, part of the World Biosphere Reserve, used to have an area of 1,001 square kilometres but currently has only 960 square kilometres.

“We have found that rising sea levels have swallowed up 4% of the land area due to global warming,” he said.

The situation could get worse if global warming continues, he added, as “extreme sea-level events that previously occurred once every 100 years may occur every year by the end of this century.”

While acknowledging that climate change indiscriminately affects the entire world, he confessed the country was powerless to act without financial support from developed countries.

“With all these dramatic consequences, vulnerable nations and small island developing states are increasingly frustrated as our requests and need for collaboration remain unanswered by other wealthier nations and the G20,” he said.

The Sao Tomean president urged countries to accelerate funding commitments to developing countries to take mitigation and adaptation measures, lagging behind.

The agreement for developed countries to mobilise a total of around US$100 billion (€86 billion) in climate finance annually to support developing countries was struck in 2009 and was initially intended to be achieved by 2020, but is not expected to happen until 2023.

“Sao Tome and Principe has seen little progress in adapting to climate change. It still needs strong and urgent support to continue building the resilience of the most vulnerable communities,” Vila Nova said.

The country has a strategy to transition to renewable energy and a blue economy, he said.

“But we do not have the means to implement it, and we are in a race against time,” he lamented.

The president of Sao Tome and Principe was speaking at this morning’s session of country statements on their targets and plans to combat environmental change.

The speeches by the heads of state or heads of government in Glasgow began on Monday and will end this afternoon.

Over 120 political leaders and thousands of experts, activists and public decision-makers are meeting until 12 November in Glasgow, Scotland, at the 26th United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference (COP26) to update countries on their contributions to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

COP26 takes place six years after the Paris Agreement, which set the goal of limiting the increase in the global average temperature of the planet between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Despite the commitments, greenhouse gas concentrations reached record levels in 2020, even with the economic slowdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the UN, which estimates that at the current rate of emissions, temperatures will be 2.7ºC hotter by the end of the century.

Source: Lusa