Decarbonisation – Portugal lagging behind

Portugal has to accelerate its decarbonisation programme by 20% in order to meet European Union targets according to a report from McKinsey & Company.

EU countries have to reduce their carbon footprints by 55% to 2030 in comparison to 1990 levels and in line with targets identified between 2005 and 2019.
The report also stresses “Portugal needs to speed up recent trends and directions towards decarbonisation, since it has the conditions to reduce its carbon footprint much quicker and at a lower cost than other countries in the European Union (EU).
This means that Portugal can achieve carbon neutrality or ‘net-zero’ before 2050 while achieving opportunities for growth.
In its analysis, the study states that Portugal has all “all the right conditions to decarbonise by around 50% to 2030 (on 1990) given its favourable position in the electricity power production sector, the greater take-up of electric vehicles as well as its expanse of forests to absorb emissions.”
The study, which was done in partnership with BCSD Portugal, highlights that its ‘net-zero’ goal can be achieved before 2050, given the potential of low-cost decarbonisation that Portugal has relative to other European countries and able to contribute on the path to more efficient decarbonisation in the European Union.
“Decarbonisation will demand of Portugal an initial investment, but over the years will bring significant changes. This investment could have an impact of around 7% on GDP being mostly redirected from high-carbon footprint producing technologies.
On the other hand, the change in flows of capital in the world could create opportunities for growth up to 10-15% of Portuguese GDP,” according to Hugo Espírito Santo at McKinsey.