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Portugal second only to Sweden in EU climate change ranking

chimneysSmokingPortugal’s climate change aspirations rank second only to Sweden’s in the European ‘Off target: Ranking of EU countries' report.

Portugal is way ahead of its European cousins in the ranking of ambitions and actual measures to comply with the Paris agreement on climate change.

The vast majority of European Union member states, "are failing to achieve the targets of the Paris Agreement, Portugal is among the few countries that have called for more ambitious energy and climate targets and policies, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” concludes the study presented by the European Network for Climate Action, ‘CAN-Europe.’

The study, "Off target: ranking of EU countries' ambition and progress in fighting climate change," assesses the role that member states are playing in setting goals and policies in the area of ​​energy and climate and the progress that is being made in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and in promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency.

The work was published in Portugal by Zero, the Association of Sustainable Terrestrial Systems, and shows Sweden in top place with a score of 77%, Portugal with 66% and France at 65%. The association did not award a first place, so Portugal is third, but beaten only by Sweden.

Zero’s president, Francisco Ferreira, commented that this is a "very nice" result for Portugal, stating that the result, "reflects, above all, the effort that Portugal has been making both internally and in the negotiations at a European level.”

Among the positive aspects for Portugal are energy and climate issues, “with a number of commitments including the withdrawal of coal by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050," said Ferreira.

"Unfortunately, Portugal also has negative aspects, namely, exploring for oil and gas is undoubtedly seen, on a European scale, as a potential and relevant setback," added the environmentalist, with rare understatement.

Poland came in last, primarily because the country continues to use loads of coal and has "made it difficult for many of the negotiations on a European scale."

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Comments  

+1 #5 PaulTeale 2018-06-21 08:50
Quoting Darcy:
Williams family,
You are the typical foreigners that buy property in another country and expect everyone else to inform you of everything. You are the one who should be asking the questions and you shouldn't think that because you have made a mistake that it is some one elses fault.
'Typical buyers' surely, it's not just immigrants that make property mistakes.
+2 #4 Darcy 2018-06-21 00:20
Williams family,
You are the typical foreigners that buy property in another country and expect everyone else to inform you of everything. You are the one who should be asking the questions and you shouldn't think that because you have made a mistake that it is some one elses fault.
-1 #3 The Wiliams Family 2018-06-19 18:25
Jeff Brown leaves out the scandal of dried up boreholes. Apparently, from talking to other expats, we were amongst thousands buying Algarve property in remote locations away from Municipal supply from 2008 onwards totally ignorant of the drying up of private house boreholes by nearby large plantation and golf course owners. We are now on our 4th borehole, paid out thousands over the last few years in having new ones dug and can only run our house water supply for 10 minutes at a time before the pump brings up sand! The cowboy Portuguese estate agent who talked us into this place happily telling us it is not his job to warn buyers to have had a geological survey done (which of course he could, for an extra fee, have arranged) before buying.
-1 #2 Jeff Brown 2018-06-19 10:41
ADN scores well on having highly knowledgeable commenters like Laurinda. Portugal has a well known record of distorting surveys - particularly on quality of life here, not difficult given that so many hundreds of thousands are living and working outside of their homeland fill in the survey forms. Which speaks for itself!
With climate change, as water scarcity becomes ever more pressing in Portugal, not least because so much water comes in from Spain - at the very least Portuguese farmers, municipal park, golf course and estate groundsmen etc should be prohibited from so ineffectually watering their crops, plants and land in the midday sun. But, as a 'measurable outcome' of successful water management, that would be a seismic shock to landowners - clear winners of the 1974 Revolution - so lets go for 'measurable drought conditions' instead.
-2 #1 Laurinda 2018-06-18 20:26
Without having access to the complete study and indicators used, its difficult to really access the validity of this report. But find it difficult to accept it, because wasn't it Can Europe (and ZERO) that ensured that Portugal was the winner of Fossil Fuels Subsidy Award?

http://www.caneurope.org/publications/press-releases/1594-winners-revealed-at-the-fossil-fuel-subsidies-awards-2018

Something does not compute ... (smells of some lobbying)

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