Delegation from

Portugal

Position Paper for The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

The topics before the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change are Realising the Promise of
the Paris Agreement and SDGs, Capacity-Building for Combating Climate Change in Developing Countries
and Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change. The Portuguese Republic believes that these topics are very
important for the future of Planet Earth and the lives of future generations and looks forward to discussing
them at the upcoming conference.

I. Realising the promise of the Paris Agreement and SDGs

Portugal is aware that more than 600 Million people (about 10% of the world population) lives in coastal areas
less than 10 metres above sea level, according to the UN Ocean Conference Fact Sheet: People and Oceans (2017),
and is concerned about rising sea levels due to global warming that threaten its coastal settlements. Portugal
is alarmed that from 1970 to 2019, drought was one of the hazards that led to the largest human losses with
about 650,000 deaths and is concerned that 90% of all the climate-related deaths in that period occurred in
developing countries, according to UNCCD’s Drought in Numbers (2022). Portugal is gravely concerned that
between 2015 and 2020, the rate of global deforestation was estimated at 10 Million hectares per year, and
that some 420 Million hectares of forest cover has been lost since 1990 to conversion to other land uses,
according to FAO’s The State of the World’s Forests (2020).

Portugal commends the work of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), for slowly bringing down GHG
emissions by creating a trading system for emission credits which encourages installations to decrease their
emissions and incentivizes the development of innovative low-carbon technologies. Portugal, aware that
global warming is the main cause of rising sea levels, recommends an adaptation strategy like its National
System of Policies and Measures, a tool which was regulated by Resolution of the Council of Ministers, with
objectives such as to promote the shift to a low-carbon economy, generating more wealth and jobs and
contributing to green growth and to ensure a sustainable path in the reduction of Greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions by the introduction of carbon taxation in the non-ETS sectors at a rate associated to the carbon
price in the ETS sector (carbon tax), measures to encourage electric mobility, increased vehicle tax rates
according to CO2 emissions and much more according to the 7th National Communication to the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Portugal (2017). As a part of the United Nations Joint
Framework Initiative on Children, Youth and Climate Change ( JFI), Portugal is aware of the role of youth in
achieving the Paris Agreement, recognizing the efforts of the JFI to empower youth to participate in climate
change policy decision-making processes.

Portugal draws attention to Portugal’s 22% decrease in GHG emissions between 2005 and 2019, and its
National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 by abandoning a linear
economic model based on fossil fuels and focusing on an economy that is sustained by renewable sources of
energy, implementing circular economy models that enhance the territory. Portugal suggests a program like
the Conservation Program of Reverte in Brazil, which aims to regenerate 1 million hectares of degraded
pasture land by 2025 to combat many pressing climate issues by supporting the transition to a more efficient
land use and soil recovery and and digital tools to allow farmers to control and monitor the improvement in
soil and agricultural conditions. Portugal recommends an initiative like South Africa’s “Driving Force for
Change” Pilot Youth Support Initiative, which gives financial support to youth and youth-led organisations
that work on the problem of climate change by presenting new ideas and implementing them using the
government’s money.