Time to stop investing in fossil fuel production – environment minister

The Environment Minister argued on Monday that it is time to stop investing in the production of fossil fuels, warning that building the future with tools from the past will result in the disappearance of the human species from the planet.

João Matos Fernandes was commenting to Lusa on the sixth report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released today, in which scientists predict that the global temperature will rise 2.7 degrees Celsius in 2100, if the current rate of greenhouse gas emissions continues.

For the minister, this report has “a new aspect” which is the pace at which global warming is happening and the consequences it is causing.

“This [report] comes at the right time because we are three months away from the Climate Conference”, six years after the Paris summit, “and it is time for the world to make the commitment that Europe has already made, and which Portugal has led, to be carbon neutral by 2050”, he stressed.

“I would say that more than saving the planet is saving ourselves as a species. We cannot support this increase in temperature and what it causes on a daily basis and with the extreme phenomena that it is also conditioning”.

Therefore, he argued, “the economy has to grow in a completely different way with investments that are focused on sustainability”.

“This is the time to stop investing in the production of fossil fuels,” advocated the minister, recalling the path that the country has taken in this direction.

“Portugal has made a path that, obviously, must always be accelerated, which is not without flaws obviously, but not only in the commitment, we were the first in the world to say we will be carbon neutral in 2050, as in the investments that are a consequence of this commitment,” he stressed.

In this regard, he recalled that 38% of the investments foreseen in the Recovery and Resilience Plan are dedicated to climate action, and recalled what the country has done to reduce greenhouse gases, such as the purchase of 700 buses with “high environmental performance”, the investments made in the Lisbon and Porto subways and the adaptation of the coastline, in the 20,000 kilometres of rivers and streams recovered only with natural gas solutions.

He also recalled the support that is being given to families, stating that almost 17,000 have already submitted applications to make their buildings more energy-efficient.

“But nothing is ever too much when it comes to investing to save ourselves as a species on the planet,” he reiterated.

The minister stressed that the “frightening” phenomena that are happening, such as the floods in central Europe, the fires in the eastern part of the Mediterranean basin and in California, the 50 degrees in Vancouver, Canada, have to make people think, act and make the commitment to change habits in a “model of open democracy”.

“It is inevitable that the State makes the right decisions and makes the right investments, but this is not going to go there without everyone’s effort”, stopping using fossil fuels, single-use plastic, oil, “greatly reducing” packaging, drinking tap water, using public transport.

“I don’t deny that there has to be a small sacrifice on the part of each one of us, because if we build the future with the instruments of the past, we already know what will result: the human species will disappear from the planet”, João Matos Fernandes concluded.