Regional Government opens travelling exhibition on climate change - Communication

Secretaria Regional do Ambiente e Ação Climática

The Regional Secretary for the Environment and Climate Action, Alonso Miguel, chaired today the opening of the travelling exhibition of the LIFE IP Climaz project: Raise Awareness, Participate, Take Action, at the São Brás Native Species Forest Nursery on Terceira Island.

Alonso Miguel emphasised that the LIFE IP Climaz Project, coordinated by the Regional Secretariat for the Environment and Climate Action, is a key element in the implementation of the Regional Programme for Climate Change, with a budget of about €20 million, with 60% co-financed by the European Union, to be implemented between 2021 and 2030.

The Regional Climate Change Programme, approved in 2019, contains a series of 145 measures, including 115 adaptation measures and 30 climate change mitigation measures.

According to the Regional Secretary, "it is expected that the LIFE IP Climaz Project will contribute to the implementation of about 75% of the adaptation measures and 70% of the mitigation measures covered by the Regional Programme for Climate Change, taking action in priority areas such as transport and energy, agriculture and livestock, forests and land use, natural risk management and coastal protection, the marine environment and water resources. It has  the collaboration and contribution of the project's associated beneficiaries, including the Regional Directorates for the Environment and Climate Action, Maritime Policies, Energy and Forest Resources and Spatial Planning, the Municipal Councils of Horta and Vila Franca do Campo and other entities, such as EDA and União Agrícola Cooperative."

Alonso Miguel pointed out that “the Azores, as an archipelago and remote region located in the middle of the Atlantic, face specific and aggravated vulnerabilities in the face of climate change.”

"The Region has been affected by increasingly intense and frequent extreme weather events and faces other threats, such as sea level rise, coastal erosion, saltwater intrusion, biodiversity loss and ocean acidification. These impacts directly affect populations, infrastructures, natural ecosystems, as well as strategic sectors such as agriculture, fisheries and tourism," he added.

The government official recalled that adaptation and mitigation to climate change "has been an absolute priority for government action in the Azores, with a focus on developing various climate action instruments of great relevance to the Region. Some of them were presented last week at COP 30, the world's largest climate change conference, which is taking place in Belém do Pará, Brazil."

"Several initiatives were presented at COP 30, such as LIFE IP Climaz, which brings us here today, the Roadmap for Carbon Neutrality in the Azores, the Agenda for the Regional Circular Economy, and innovative projects such as Implacost and Planclimac 2, which collectively make a decisive contribution to strengthening our resilience and capacity for climate adaptation," he added.

Alonso Miguel pointed out that the LIFE IP Climaz Project, due to its multisectoral scope and relevance to the implementation of the measures set out in the Regional Programme for Climate Change, is developed in close coordination with the goals and targets of the Roadmap for Carbon Neutrality in the Azores. According to him, it "is certainly the main operational instrument to ensure that the Azores can firmly tackle the challenge of climate change."

The Regional Secretary explained that, "in the forestry sector, pastures are being converted and patches of native forest invaded by exotic species are being recovered, with more than 44,000 native species already planted in an intervention area of about 22 hectares."

“In the agricultural sector, solutions have been tested to improve the biodiversity of pastures, increasing their resilience to climate change. An experiment is underway to create a food supplement using seaweed (Asparagopsis taxiformis) with a view to reducing methane emissions from enteric fermentation in cattle. With a view to strengthening the sector's adaptation to climate change, six agrometeorological stations have been installed and the AGRI_CUA application has been developed, which provides useful information and data to farmers," he said.

He continued: "As far as water resources are concerned, interventions are underway on 18 watercourses identified in the Azores Flood Risk Management Plan (PGRIA) with the aim of promoting the adaptation of these ecosystems to extreme weather events, helping to prevent floods and landslides. These include cleaning and clearing watercourses, stabilising banks through nature-based solutions, as well as removing invasive vegetation and planting more than 35,000 endemic specimens in an area of about 25 hectares.”

The government official also mentioned that “in the transport sector, 40 new public electric vehicle charging stations were integrated into the regional network, new electric vehicles were purchased, and a pilot shared mobility platform was implemented for Regional Government services.” He added that “the replacement of gas heating systems with electric water heaters continues in the energy sector, with 209 units already installed and 280 applications in the validation process.”

The Regional Secretary also mentioned that “the project has significantly boosted investment in training and raising awareness about climate change, with 47 training sessions held so far for 958 participants, helping to create a more informed community better prepared to face this global challenge.”

Alonso Miguel highlighted that “the exhibition opening today is also another important tool for raising environmental awareness and education, disseminating the project, its goals and the entities responsible for its implementation, in addition to the situation of the Azores in the context of climate change.” For this reason, it presents  “exceptional educational contents, which are now available to the Azorean population and, more specifically, to schools, as they play a strategic role as a privileged vector for disseminating knowledge to students and society in general.”