Regional Secretariat for the Environment and Climate Change launches Roadmap for Carbon Neutrality in the Azores - Communication

Secretaria Regional do Ambiente e Ação Climática

The Regional Secretary for the Environment and Climate Change, Alonso Miguel, chaired today the public session for the launch of the Roadmap for Carbon Neutrality in the Azores, which took place at the Auditorium of the Angra do Heroísmo Campus of the University of the Azores.

Alonso Miguel stated that "the Regional Secretariat for the Environment and Climate Change plans to invest, until the end of 2023, one million Euros in the implementation of the Roadmap for Carbon Neutrality in the Azores, under the application approved by REACT-EU."

The government official mentioned that "the implementation of this project aims to make a fundamental contribution to the goal of achieving carbon neutrality in 2050, as recommended by the European Ecological Pact.

"It is indeed essential to develop a Roadmap for Carbon Neutrality in the Azores tailored to the characteristics and specificities of the Region. It will provide guidance for the definition of public policies for the business fabric, institutions and the population in general, so as to prepare the Region for this challenge," said the Regional Secretary.

Alonso Miguel added that "the roadmap will allow the definition of different evolution scenarios as well as the assessment of the potential for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the different activity sectors of the Region."

The Regional Secretary also stressed that "the implementation of this project will determine, with greater accuracy, measurement levels regarding the balance between greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere and the Region's carbon sequestration capacity. Based on this information, it will be possible to define the strategy and mitigation measures required for the Azores to follow a successful path towards carbon neutrality."

Alonso Miguel added that "this roadmap will lead to the creation of fiscal instruments for carbon neutrality, the drafting of sectoral and territorial best practice guides in this area as well as to the optimised monitoring of the Regional Climate Change Programme and of IRERPA - Regional System for the Inventory of Emissions by Sources and Removals by Sinks of Air Pollutants."

"In this case, given the urgency of this matter, the future is already today and it is, therefore, time to move from words to actions, overcoming constraints and defining new metrics for the Region to achieve the goals set out in the context of carbon neutrality. We have to know exactly where we are, where we want to go and how we are going to get there," said the Regional Secretary.

Alonso Miguel also stated that the Region's Plan and Budget for 2023 foresee the necessary investments for the completion of several projects, already implemented during this legislative period, namely the six ongoing projects financed at 100% under REACT-EU. They represent a total investment of 13 million Euros, of which 10.2 million Euros will be invested in 2023, focusing on the mitigation and adaptation to climate change effects as well as on waste prevention and management.