SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Feb. 8 (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Cabildo of Tenerife, through the delegated area of Foreign Action, convened this Tuesday in the Noble Hall of the island institution a delegation of representatives from Cape Verde, Senegal and Mauritania who are on the island to learn about some of the projects of sustainability that the Corporation is developing.
The event, which was chaired by the CEO of Acción Exterior, Liskel Álvarez, is part of the strategy of the Covenant of Mayors, a global alliance of cities and local governments voluntarily committed to the fight against climate change.
The objective of this visit, which will last throughout the week, is to show how the Covenant of Mayors is being implemented by the Cabildo, as the Territorial coordinating body of the Covenant in Tenerife, in order to establish alliances and lines of collaboration with the African continent.
The event was also attended by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Javier Parrilla; the Minister for Sustainable Development and the Fight Against Climate Change, Javier Rodríguez; the insular director of the primary sector, Cayetano Silva; the mayor of the Municipal Chamber of Ribeira Grande de Santiago, Nelson Moreira, and the head of the Covenant of Mayors of the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (AECID), Cristina Moyano. In addition to representatives from Cidade Velha and Praia (Cape Verde), from Dakar and Pikine (Senegal) and from Nouakchott (Mauritania).
“This type of meeting promotes joint work against climate change, equality in employment, food security and sustainable agriculture. Here development cooperation plays a fundamental role,” said Liskel Álvarez.
In the opinion of the CEO, these technical and knowledge transfers contribute “to developing the technical capacities of the leaders of the future and empowering peoples, generating employment and development. The growth of the African peoples will be the growth of the island of Tenerife “, he concluded.
The island councilor for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Javier Parrilla, pointed out the importance of optimizing the resources allocated to agriculture, especially water, and underlined the need to continue working for real and effective equality. In this sense, he recalled that the Cabildo collaborates with the University of La Laguna and the Gaston Berger University (Senegal) in the AGRO-FEM research project, whose objective is to promote the activity of women’s agricultural cooperatives in the Canary Islands and Senegal.
For his part, the Minister for Sustainable Development and the Fight Against Climate Change, Javier Rodríguez, highlighted the need to commit to technological development and emphasized the importance of “starting to see waste as a potential, as a pole of attraction for employment and wealth, because thanks to technology they can be transformed into new resources”.
The mayor of the Municipal Chamber of Ribeira Grande de Santiago, Nelson Moreira, assured that Cape Verde “wants to learn”, because “this fight cannot be overcome if we act individually. We need unity and solidarity, and we are convinced that that we will return to our cities, regions and countries with knowledge and experiences that will allow us to develop agendas more linked to the environment and closer to sustainability”.
Lastly, the head of the AECID Mayor’s Agreement, Cristina Moyano, stated that “the closeness and common challenges that the Canary Islands have with Cape Verde, and the history of cooperation with Mauritania and Senegal make it the Autonomous Community ideal to provide support to our cities. We have common challenges and I am sure that this trip will contribute to establishing lasting and fruitful relationships”.
During the next two days, the African delegation will visit some of the signatory municipalities of the Covenant of Mayors of Tenerife, as well as the facilities of the Environmental Complex in Arico and the farm of La Quinta Roja, in Garachico, where the Office of the Renewable Energies and Support for the Covenant of Mayors, promoted by the Technical Service for the Fight against Climate Change and Environmental Education.
THE COVENANT OF MAYORS.
The Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy is a European initiative that was born in 2008, in which thousands of local governments commit to the objectives of the European Union in terms of climate and energy, although it has been growing to associate with the worldwide Coalition of Mayors.
The Cabildo, as an entity committed to sustainable development and to the objectives of the Covenant of Mayors, signed its adherence to this initiative on March 25, 2013 as Territorial Coordinator in Tenerife.
Regarding the Covenant of Mayors in Sub-Saharan Africa, it began in 2015 and is co-financed by the European Union and the AECID. It currently has the commitment of 277 cities and its goal is to help local governments move from planning to implementation, unlocking climate finance at the local level.
