INFORPRESS
Oct 30, 2024
The president of the Carlos Albertino Veiga Foundation, Paulo Veiga, highlighted today in Lisbon the importance of all states worldwide being involved in understanding the ocean that covers 71% of planet Earth.
Lisbon, October 30 (Inforpress) – The president of the Carlos Albertino Veiga Foundation, Paulo Veiga, highlighted today in Lisbon the importance of all states worldwide being involved in understanding the ocean that covers 71% of planet Earth.
Paulo Veiga spoke about this importance in statements to Inforpress, at the end of the first edition of the Ocean Summit 2024, an initiative of the Carlos Albertino Veiga Foundation, in partnership with the Portuguese Navy and the Proteus Ocean Group (United States of America), which takes place from the 29th to the 30th at the Portuguese Navy Museum Planetarium, in Lisbon.
Paulo Veiga also defended this idea in one of the panels at the event on "The Power of Politics to Save the Ocean," where he was joined on the panel by the German Ambassador to Portugal and Cape Verde, Julia Monar.
“What we convey is the importance of partnership, both bilateral and multilateral, because the oceans cover 71% of our planet, we only know between 5% and 7%, and therefore, the importance of all States, regardless of whether they are coastal or not, being involved in understanding the ocean,” he argued.
The former Minister of the Sea stressed this importance, recalling that of the 71%, only 5% is known, which means that the remaining 66%, which may hold the solutions to current problems, both climatic and from other areas, are yet to be discovered.
“The Carlos Albertino Veiga Foundation decided to hold this event, considering that one of its missions is the protection of the environment and the oceans, and Cape Verde is 99.3% sea,” he explained, assuring that the outcome of the two-day meeting is “very positive.”
“It was very holistic, involving all sectors, from health to security, research, entrepreneurship, investors, and businesses, so it’s an initiative that we will certainly repeat in the coming years. The location is what we will have to decide, whether it’s in Cape Verde, the United States, or France, wherever our diaspora is,” he said.
Present at the international event, which brings together experts from four continents and aims to boost new discoveries and promote dialogue on different topics, and at the opening this Tuesday, were the Minister of the Sea, Jorge Santos, and the Ambassador of Cape Verde in Lisbon, Eurico Correia Monteiro.
International experts and political representatives discussed topics such as ocean sustainability, the blue economy, responsible tourism, the preservation of marine biodiversity, the impacts of climate change, and new technologies for ocean monitoring.
Among the speakers, in addition to Paulo Veiga, are the founder of the Proteus Ocean Group and grandson of the celebrated oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, Fabien Cousteau, and Rear Admiral Ramalho Marreiros, who is the director of the Hydrographic Institute of Portugal.
Today, the focus was on the blue economy and sustainable tourism, in a day that concluded with a discussion on the strategic relationship between Cape Verde and Portugal in the development of Atlantic platforms.
The first day's panels revolved around discussions about the impact of climate change on biodiversity and the law of the sea.
See the full news story.