Message from the CEO - Agosto 2021

Let me begin by informing you about the progress in regard to the “Portugal Renewable Energy Summit 2021”, APREN's annual conference, already a classic of the renewable panorama in Portugal, and which will take place on the 9^th and 10^th of November at Culturgest's Large Auditorium, in Lisbon.

 

This event marks APREN's return to physical events, maintaining the streaming broadcast with the quality of last year. We have several confirmed speakers already, who you can check on our website. For our members who want to support this initiative, the several forms of sponsorship are availabe on our website. Naturally, APREN is available to clarify any doubts you may have.

 

We will continue to provide news about the event which, in addition to being the largest in the APREN sphere, it is also the largest event aimed at the renewable sector on Portuguese soil, counting, year after year, with the main figures in the sector at national and international level.

 

For the rest, this is August, a typical month of vacations and the so-called silly season, when traditionally little or nothing happens. Yet, this August is an unsual silly season. In addition to news related to the pandemic, it is being marked by several manifestations of the effects of climate change (namely fires of catastrophic proportions); and recently by the release of another worrying report on the same topic.

 

This time, it was up to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to issue an alert. Scientists on this UN panel predict an increase of 1.5 °C in 2040, 2 °C in 2060 and 2.7 °C in 2100, should the current pace of greenhouse emissions be kept. They also estimate that the global warming threshold (+1.5°C) compared to that of the pre-industrial era will be reached in 2030, 10 years earlier than previously projected, "threatening humanity with new [climatic] disasters without precedents".

 

Several national and international authorities reacted immediately with concern (and with full legitimacy) to this new report. Environmental associations globally and also in Portugal, called for an end to dependence on fossil fuels, namely natural gas, coal and oil, and for the need to invest in green jobs and the urgente construction of a zero carbon future.

 

António Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, is of the same opinion. He says that this report is a red alert for all of Humanity and that it should sound alarms regarding the acquisition, use and consumption of fossil energy, which are clearly accelerating and irreversibly destroying the planet. In a press conference, António Guterres sustained that the conclusions of this report, which scientifically evaluated the last seven years, should mean the end of the use of coal and fossil fuels, before they destroy the planet. He also added that no coal power plant should be built after 2021.

 

The United Nations report serves as a preamble to the COP26 conference, which will take place next November. Several countries are expected to assume decarbonization targets (such as India), alongside Europe and the United States of America, China and other world geographies have done in the past.

 

A central theme in recent years, renewables will take even more of the lead in supporting decarbonisation, with the development of more and more essential renewable and sustainable projects. Taking into account the urgency, it is expected that the main barriers to the advancement of these projects will also be mitigated locally and that we can play our part in this entire process, which importance is reinforced after this news.

 

Because Portugal needs our Energy!