Climate Change

Climate change is the greatest environmental challenge of the 21^st century. Records show that, in recent decades, the atmosphere and oceans have been getting warmer, the amount of snow and ice has been decreasing and sea levels have been rising. The predictions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change show that climate change will have profound implications for mankind's ability to progress economically, socially and culturally. Its effects may lead to loss of biodiversity, loss of food production capacity, and profound changes in current ecosystems, leading to an imbalance that is detrimental to mankind.

In Portugal, according to information provided by the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA), in the last three decades, in about 80% of the years, the average annual temperatures recorded were above the average of the 1971-2000 Climate Normal. In the future, faced with a scenario of lack of emission control, Portugal could reach average temperature increases of up to 7ºC in the summer and a reduction of 20-40% in precipitation (SIAM II project).

In response to the problem of climate change, the Paris Agreement was adopted, having entered into force on November 4, 2016. The Agreement resulted from the 21^st Conference of the Parties (COP21) of the UNFCC in Paris, and was approved by 195 countries.

The Paris Agreement aims to reduce the risks and impacts of climate change by imposing new targets in the fight against climate change.

Portugal has currently implemented a National Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change, whose time horizon is 2020 (ENAAC 2020) and which aims to:

1. Increase the level of knowledge on climate change; 
2. Implement adaptation measures; 
3. Promote the integration of adaptation into sectoral policies.

Portugal has made an international commitment to be greenhouse gas (GHG) neutral by the end of 2050 (decarbonization). As such, Portugal has established a roadmap to achieve this carbon neutrality, based on the sectoral components of energy, transport, waste, agriculture, forestry, and land use - the main drivers of GHG emissions and carbon sequestration. These sectors will be supported by the circular economy, the involvement of society, and by socio-economic scenarios.

A strategy based on the reduction, reuse, recovery, and recycling of materials and energy. It replaces the end-of-life concept of the linear economy with new circular flows for reuse, restoration, and renovation in an integrated process.

A key element in promoting the decoupling of economic growth and increased resource consumption, a relationship hitherto seen as inexorable.

Buildings with a very high energy performance that have almost zero or very small energy needs, which are covered, to a large extent, by energy from renewable sources – Nearly zero energy buildings.