Environment Minister wants to anticipate carbon neutrality in Portugal to 2045
The Minister for the Environment today praised the role of the Armed Forces in the environmental field, having stated that he wanted to anticipate carbon neutrality from 2050 to 2045 and rejected an economic development based on the use of fossil fuels.
“Portugal has played a leading role in international commitments in climate action. We were pioneers, as early as 2016, in the commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, which we want to bring forward to 2045”, said Duarte Cordeiro today, having underlined that the Government discarded any possibility of basing economic development on the use of fossil fuels and remembering the closure of coal-fired power plants on national soil, the last of which in Pego (Abrantes), in November 2021.
The Minister of the Environment and Energy Transition, Duarte Cordeiro, spoke in Constância, Santarém, where he presented, together with the Minister of National Defence, Helena Carreiras, the 29th National Defense and Environment award to the Army Mechanized Brigade (BrigMec ), at Campo Militar de Santa Margarida, for the environmental management system developed by this military unit and which competed with a project “BrigMec’s Contribution to Sustainable Development”.
“This prize has, since 1993, reflected this fruitful partnership, much older, and recognizes that only with joint action by the different areas of government is it possible to achieve the objectives we set ourselves in terms of the environment and climate action, which, as we know , are extremely demanding”, said the minister.
According to Duarte Cordeiro: “Achieving carbon neutrality in Portugal requires emission reductions of more than 85% to anticipate the goal in relation to 2045, and a capacity for carbon sequestration by the use of soil and forests of 13 million tons of carbon per year “.
“To achieve this, it is also necessary to change the linear economic model in which people extract, consume and discard to a circular economic model, regenerative in the use of resources (…) because only then will we be able to save resources (material and financial) and protect the territory, thus guaranteeing conditions for the reduction of emissions and promotion of carbon sequestration”, he defended, having praised the project in the Army Students competition, which won an honorable mention.
“We ruled out basing economic development on the use of fossil fuels” and, “for this reason, we closed our coal-fired power stations, whose emissions, in 2017, came to represent around 17% of the national total”, he recalled, having referred that the commitment is, “increasingly, in renewable energies” in Portugal.
According to the minister, between 2013 and 2022, the country achieved “a capacity of 5 GW in renewables and only two coal-fired power stations (1.8 GW) left the system”, having realized that “renewables account for around 16.3 GW of installed capacity”.
In terms of electricity production, he added, “in 2020 and 2021 renewable energy was around 60% of total production” and “solar went from 3% of total renewable production in 2015 to around 11% in 2022”, anticipating shorten the deadline of another objective.
“In the next two years we will be able to add another 2.8 GW of new capacity based on the licenses already allocated. That is, we will be able to double the installed solar capacity, which allows us, with optimism, but realism, considering that we will anticipate our goals of 2030 already in 2026”, he advanced.
For the Minister of National Defence, “today, more than a solid commitment to protecting the planet, the promotion of environmental sustainability in the Defense sector is also seen as a key contribution to increasing national resilience and strengthening resources” .
In this sense, “in order to respond” to the different challenges and three years after the beginning of the implementation of the Environmental Directive for National Defense, Helena Carreiras said that “the time has come for its revision”, and that it must “respond to the current moment and move forward with a National Defense Strategy for the Environment, which assigns a special approach to Climate Change and the operational impact” on the Armed Forces.
“In a decade in which we are constantly confronted by younger generations about the reason for inaction in the face of climate events, it is therefore urgent to take more measures and act tolerantly”, said a government official.
The Campo Militar de Santa Margarida has an area of 63 hectares, of which 60 are forest land. Around 900 people work daily in its various units, including military and civilians. The winning project, entitled “BrigMec’s Contribution to Sustainable Development”, consists of an integrated environmental, energy and agroforestry management system.
The jury of the contest, open to all branches of the Armed Forces and in which three projects, all from the Army, competed, also awarded an Honorable Mention to the candidacy of the Instituto dos Pupils of the Army (IPE) called “A Tiny Forest at IPE”.
The National Defense and Environment Award, created in 1993, continually distinguishes the unit that best contributes to the quality of the environment, from a perspective of sustainable development, through the efficient use of natural resources, the promotion of good practices in land use management, the protection and enhancement of the natural and landscape heritage and biodiversity.