Welcome to the Earth.Org Global Sustainability Index for Portugal, where Earth.Org examines the policies and actions regarding the environment of every nation on earth. Combining the most respected global indexes on pollution, climate change, policy, energy, oceans, biodiversity we have produced an overall Global Index, which will be updated annually. This is the Global Sustainability Index scorecard for Portugal.
Portugal’s National Energy and Climate Plan has been developed in coherence with the draft Roadmap for Carbon Neutrality 2050, and is based on the principles of a circular economy.
The country has set a target for reduced greenhouse gas emissions not covered by the EU ETS at 17% compared to 2005 levels. Portugal is expected to meet this target with a continuation of current policies. It also plans further measures in the building, transport and agriculture sectors.
Portugal plans to reduce energy import dependency to 65% by 2030 from 80% today. While ambitious, this target is realistic given the country’s envisaged deployment of renewable energy.
- Portugal dropped 8 places to spot 25 in the latest climate change performance index ranking due to its increased emissions between 2012 and 2017.
- Increased droughts have been plaguing the country, leading to many forest fires in 2017 and a drop in hydroelectric power plant productivity.
- Despite still granting 2.3 billion euros in tax benefits to the fossil fuel industry in 2018, Portugal has seen a shift in policy and legislation, realigning with the EU’s net-zero-by-2050 goal over the last year and a half. They plan to phase out coal by 2023 and function on 100% renewable by 2050.
You might also like: Global Emissions (2016)
References:
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Biodiversity, Policy: Sachs, J., Schmidt-Traub, G., Kroll, C., Lafortune, G., Fuller, G. (2019): Sustainable Development Report 2019. New York: Bertelsmann Stiftung and Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN).
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Oceans: Halpern, Benjamin S., et al. “An index to assess the health and benefits of the global ocean.” Nature 488.7413 (2012): 615-620.
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Pollution: Wendling, Z. A., Emerson, J. W., Esty, D. C., Levy, M. A., de Sherbinin, A., et al. (2018). 2018 Environmental Performance Index. New Haven, CT: Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy. https://epi.yale.edu/
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Climate Change: Climate Change Performance Index; Jan Burck, Ursula Hagen, Niklas Höhne, Leonardo Nascimento, Christoph Bals, ISBN 978-3-943704-75-4, 2019
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Energy: Enerdata –World Energy Statistics – Yearbook.
World Energy Statistics
