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Cabo Verde

Cabo Verde Country Climate and Development Report - January 2025

Attachments

Abstract

Cabo Verde’s climate exposure, partly also because of its geography, is compounded by economic vulnerabilities. The country has experienced robust economic growth since the early 1990s and achieved a substantial reduction in poverty, but growth has been volatile and has slowed in recent years. Reflecting the comparative advantage of its attractive natural geography, growth has primarily been driven by the tourism sector, which accounts for a quarter of gross domestic product (GDP), over half of exports, and most foreign direct investment. For similar reasons, the archipelago is heavily reliant on imports, notably those of fuel and food. High levels of remittance and concessional international financing serve to bridge its external financing needs, but they generate additional external vulnerabilities. Adding to this, although recurrent fiscal deficits have recently resorbed, public spending is rigid, and public debt remains above 100 percent of GDP. The COVID-19 pandemic put Cabo Verde’s external vulnerabilities on display, causing a steep decline in tourism revenue and a surge in the food and fuel import bill before the economy returned to pre-pandemic conditions in 2023. This CCDR analyzes how Cabo Verde can build climate resilience and stimulate low carbon development, while identifying key enablers. The Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) estimates the projected economic and social damage from climate change in chapter 1. The report then proceeds to a discussion of the country’s relevant institutional and legal framework in chapter 2, the main ways in which a climate-resilient economy can be achieved at the water-land nexus and through the blue economy and infrastructure systems in chapter 3, the green transition in the energy, transport, waste, and digital sectors in chapter 4, the core actions to support the private sector and people to become more climate shock-resilient though social protection, and finally, the skills needed for, and the strengthening of, the health system in chapter 5. Chapter 6 brings together the recommendations presented in the earlier chapters, estimating their costs and benefits and modeling their effects on the economy.

Citation

“World Bank Group. 2025. Cabo Verde Country Climate and Development Report. CCDR Series. © Washington, DC: World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/42687 License: CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO.”

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/10986/42687