Portugal has stepped up its effort to adapt to climate change

The country is particularly exposed to climate-related hazards. It faces multiple threats, including coastal erosion, heavy precipitation events and extreme heat days. Droughts also undermine agricultural yield and hydropower generation. Forests are particularly exposed to fire danger (Figure 6).

Portugal has stepped up action on adaptation. The government adopted a National Adaptation Strategy in 2015 and an Action programme in 2019 to define priorities and measures. Public information on climate change risks has improved considerably (Box 2) and adaptation is increasingly integrated into sectoral strategies, such as in agriculture. Funding for adaptation has been scaled up, notably co-financed by the European Union. Portugal has strengthened wildfire risk prevention but faces the challenge of improving forest management practices in abandoned rural areas where land ownership is private and fragmented. Accelerating registrations to the land cadastre and extending payments for ecosystem services can help reduce the risks of forest fires.

More than half of rural properties do not have a cadastral delimitation and an estimated 20% of forest land has unknown owners

BOX 1. THE 2021 FRAMEWORK CLIMATE LAW INCLUDES MANY PROMISING PROVISIONS

In line with international good practices, the 2021 Climate Framework Law (no 98/2021) requires five-year climate budgets, sectoral mitigation plans, municipal climate action plans and an annual progress report to Parliament. It sets out green budgeting principles requiring the government to specify the resources allocated to climate policy in the state budget. The law also creates an independent Council for Climate Action to assess climate action and provide recommendations. It plans a web portal to inform the public. Although promising, the law remains to be implemented through specific regulations.

BOX 2. LOULÉ HAS PIONEERED MUNICIPAL CLIMATE ACTION

The Loulé municipality in Algarve region has been working on adaptation with a network of municipalities (adapt. local) since 2016. It has been monitoring the impacts of climate change and has created a municipal observatory on the environment. Loulé has built a contingency plan for droughts and engaged for more efficient water use. It encourages the production of renewable energy in public buildings and allowed a school to be nearly self-sufficient for its energy. The municipality also notably suspended a tourist development plan in wetlands and designated the area as a local natural reserve in 2022. In line with the Climate Law, Loulé has adopted a Municipal Climate Action Plan.