Prime Minister Antonio Costa has warned the 50 or so world leaders attending the opening session at Madrid’s climate change summit that "time is short" and that there is an "urgent duty to act".
Mr. Costa proclaimed that we have two duties, “listening to scientists and the imperative duty to act" to save the planet from the consequences of climate change. His speech was given at the Summit of Heads of State and Government that followed the opening session of the United Nations summit on climate change, known as COP25, which will run until the 13th of December in Madrid.
Following his initial message to the world’s leaders, Mr. Costa said: "It is possible to act and it is worthwhile to act,” then giving specific examples of how Portugal has acted to combat the effect of climate.
"54 percent of the electricity which Portugal consumes comes from renewable sources, in 2018 the country reduced threefold the emissions of harmful gases into the atmosphere compared to the EU as a whole and managed, even so, to have economic growth above the European average,” he stated.
"Energy transition hasn’t hindered our growth", concluded Mr. Costa, who then gave the example of "reducing the cost of energy in Portugal by 8 percent, while in the European Union it increased by 6 percent" as well. One of the staples of the prime-minister’s message is the insistence that renewable energy "can be cheaper".
“We have a responsibility to go even further, and even faster", argued António Costa to those present at the leaders' meeting, explaining that Portugal has approved a roadmap that has set a target of 80 percent of electricity from renewable sources by 2030.
Furthermore, Mr. Costa chose to shine a light on the importance of energy "interconnections" to ensure the effective transport of energy, giving the example of an agreement which Portugal has with Morocco, which he hopes will also strengthen the North African country’s links with Europe.
The fourth and final message was to voice the importance of the planet’s ocean as our “main climate regulator".
"We have to give the same attention to the oceans that we are giving to energy transition", uttered the Prime Minister, calling back to the fact that Portugal will organize together with Kenya in June 2020 the second United Nations conference on Oceans.
We must "be inspired by globalization to save not only polar bears, but also humanity," he finished.
