The Porto City Council’s vice-president, Filipe Araújo, has revealed that the municipality invested 234 million euros from 2017 to 2023 as part of its Municipal Strategy for Climate Change Adaptation.
Among the 184 projects implemented during this period, 49% were focused on the urban water cycle, 15% on mobility, 12% on green spaces, and 10% on buildings.
The Climate Action Plan outlines the key strategies to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030 and enhance climate resilience. It is divided into two main sections: adaptation and mitigation.
The adaptation section specifies seven objectives, such as increasing protection for natural risk zones and vulnerable areas, adapting public and private buildings, enhancing public space resilience, improving urban water cycle efficiency, boosting the city’s alert and emergency systems, enhancing safety and health conditions for residents, and increasing climate literacy.
To achieve these aims, the municipality plans to invest 450 million euros, allocating 174 million euros to public spaces, 120 million euros to risk zones, and 112 million euros to the water cycle.
In the mitigation and decarbonization section, the plan sets out 25 objectives across energy systems, mobility and transport, environment, waste and circular economy, and green infrastructure and nature-based solutions.
For mitigation, an investment exceeding 1.7 billion euros is planned, with the municipality having already invested 423 million euros between 2019 and 2023, as stated by Filipe Araújo, who oversees the Environment sector.
The Municipal Climate Action Plan stems from the Climate Bases Law, mandating municipalities to have a municipal climate action plan.
Joana Rodrigues from the BE emphasized the need for the municipality to engage with the population, while representatives from BE, PSD, and PS praised and commended the efforts made in the development of this plan.
According to Filipe Araújo, before the plan is submitted for public consultation, the municipality will convene a collective focused on climate change issues.
In mid-March, more than 50 organizations and citizens urged the municipality to hold public information sessions on the plan, citing a lack of “adequate dissemination, clarification, and participation.”
Signatories of the manifesto included various citizens and entities, such as the Association of the Friends of Mindelo for Environmental Defense, Extinction Rebellion Portugal, Observalicia, Organization for the Promotion of Ecoclubs, Campo Aberto Association, Póvoa in Transition Movement, Degrowth Network, Ecosocialist Network, MUBi, and Coop99.
