This time, I decided to do a real public service and present you a small compendium of what our main political forces have to tell us and what they intend do in the next four years, with regard to Climate Emergency.
As succinctly as possible, I want to share with you what I found online and what I did to get the answer to the question “What are your concrete measures regarding the Climate Crisis?” and, of course, what the results were.
The idea here is to find out the degree of involvement of the political party in question in the direct relationship with an anonymous citizen. I considered a 24-hour response period from the first contact.
I pondered this fieldwork the six political forces with parliamentary seats: PSD, PS, BE, CDU (coalition that brings together PCP and Greens) CDS-PP and PAN, whose proposals will be presented in no particular order.
Curious? Let's go then…
PPD / PSD
The PSD starts by recognizing the state of Climate Emergency.
“The PSD has an obligation to honor its history and place environmental issues at the top of its priorities. A balanced environmental policy is not, and should not be, a constraint on economic growth”.
"The PSD recognizes the state of climate emergency in which the planet finds itself and defends a responsible and respectful attitude towards future generations."
Then, it dedicates an entire chapter of its Electoral Program (chapter 5) to the Environment, under the motto “Valuing natural resources and promoting environmental sustainability”.
From page 42 to page 45, we have a sub-chapter entitled “Nature, climate and landscape: a potential threatened by climate change”, which emphasizes that “the measures presented below focus on CO2 sequestration and focus on encouraging the use of forests to capture carbon and developing a fiscal framework favorable to carbon neutral behaviour”.
So let's go to the measures presented:
– Increased use of forests for carbon capture;
– Alteration of the legal and regulatory framework in order to intensify the creation of more green spaces in large urban centers;
– Imposition of urban afforestation ratios;
– Reinforce the carbon neutral dimension in Green Taxation;
– Promotion of Intermunicipal Plans for Decarbonization;
– Establishment of Intermunicipal Decarbonization Councils;
– Empower the country for the opportunities of the European carbon market;
"The PSD will also implement a set of measures aimed at enhancing the country's adaptation and resilience to climate change, namely:"
– Integrate climate change adaptation into territorial management instruments;
– Encourage nature-based solutions;
– Ensure the adaptation of the energy sector to the risks associated with climate change;
– Develop and maintain a set of vulnerability and risk maps for the entire coastline;
– Promote the use of insurance.
PSD's Facebook response to my question “What are your concrete measures regarding the Climate Crisis?” it was… They didn't give me any answers.
The complete PSD Program can be consulted here.
PS
The PS identifies Climate Change as one of its 4 good governance goals, highlighting:
“The PS is the party in the history of democracy that has done the most for the environment and for a green policy. It was with the PS that renewable energies, the electric car, the land use planning or the integrated waste treatment and recovery strategy were developed in Portugal. It was also with the PS that the social pass was created and the recent reduction in its price, encouraging the use of public transport. It was also with the PS that we set the goal of carbon neutrality in 2050 and that we approved the roadmap to achieve it».
The PS presents concrete actions for the points below:
I. Carbon Neutrality
II. Energy
III. Promote Urban Public Transport
IV. Give priority to the railroad
V. Adopt a green tax
SAW. Preserving marine resources and developing a circular Blue Economy
VII. Circular Economy
VIII. Make better use of the water we have
IX. Investing in efficient and sustainable irrigation
X. Electric Mobility
To get my answer to the question “What are your concrete measures regarding the Climate Crisis?” I needed to call. On the website's Messenger, no one was available at the time and on Facebook there was no option to send a message (only email, but it was not operational at the time…). On the phone, after about five minutes of waiting, I was answered. The person who could talk to me about this (?) was busy, but I was told that the website would find all the answers.
The complete PS Program can be consulted here.
CDS/PP
The CDS/PP electoral program is a document with 261 pages. From page 204 to page 255 there is a chapter “A COHESE TERRITORY PREPARED FOR CLIMATE CHANGE”, with the following subchapters:
1. We have to reclaim the future of the interior
2. Agriculture is an active agent for the preservation and management of the territory
3. A territory that already feels the effects of climate change
4. Environmental policy does not have exclusive supporters
5. We don't leave the interior to abandon
6. Empower and care for a mostly agro-forestry territory
7. A country that brings people together and connects them to the world
8. A firm environmental commitment based on science and properly framed
9. Water: our biggest climate challenge
10. Energy transition and climate change
11. A blue economy
12. Nature Conservation
In the subchapter in which the CDS states that "Environmental policy does not have exclusive supporters", the following statement appears:
“A cultural insistence that we do not understand is the consideration of the left as the guardian of environmental policies, when there are numerous figures on the right who were at the forefront of protecting the environment. The inefficient use of resources, food, environmental and industrial waste or the abandonment of our rural and forest heritage does not belong to our matrix. But neither are we willing to defend a demagoguery according to which the left is to blame for global warming, or that only the end of left-wing policies can save the planet».
Here are some excerpts from phrases we can find throughout this chapter:
“Global warming is a global problem that affects all modern political and economic systems. It is not about more capitalism or more socialism, but about taking advantage of what we can do best: it is about more technological progress, an intelligent policy to mitigate the effects, a strategic look at the territory and a reorganization of the policies of natural resources of the country”.
“For us, it is essential that environmental policies are scientifically sound”.
"We believe that sustainable development is everyone's responsibility, namely towards the next generations, which is why policy choices must take into account the environmental factor."
"We are dedicated to finding economically sustainable solutions to the problems of energy dependence, always aiming to integrate the environmental problem into the effective needs of the population."
«We will promote…»; «We defend…»; «We will bet…»; «We need…», «We will develop…». There are many defined goals. How will they be reached, we will have to pay to see.
The CDS answer to my question “What are your concrete measures regarding the Climate Crisis?”, was sent by email and the answer was… I was not given any answer.
The complete CDS/PP Program can be found here.
CDU (PCP-ENP)
The CDU, in chapter 2 “Economic development” of its electoral program, presents in section 2.3 “Key policies”, subsection 2.3.5, the heading “A policy to defend the environmental balance and combat the commodification of Nature”.
“Portugal needs a change in environmental policy. An environmental policy aimed at preserving the balance of nature and its ecological systems, which respects the "precautionary principle" in the face of new threats and problems, helping to prevent the effects of climate change and ensuring the democratization of its access and enjoyment, fighting the commodification of the environment and its ideological and political instrumentalization by big business. What it requires:
– Strengthening the State's means and structures, such as the ICNF and the APA, to develop a true policy to defend the balance of Nature;
– The commitment to the Rational Use of Energy;
– A policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions;
– Promotion of public transport;
– The defense of trade policies, particularly in the EU, according to the interests, specificities and needs of each country;
– A water resources policy that, on the basis of a new Water Law;
– A waste policy that favors its reduction and promotes recycling and reuse;
– Democratic management of Protected Areas;
– Combating programmed obsolescence;
– Support for less polluting productive solutions and the use of reusable and recyclable materials;
– Investment in scientific research and in the development of technology aimed at the evolution of the means of production and an economic activity that is less and less polluting, with the rejection of the patenting of life and genetically modified organisms.
Here are some statements that we can find on the part of the CDU regarding the Environment – I did not find, however, the expression “Climate Crisis” or “Climate Emergency” (please forgive me, if by chance it escaped me…):
"Complex environmental problems with a great economic and social impact will not be resolved without calling into question capital's solutions, unless by multiplying social and regional inequalities, and accelerating the predation of Nature."
"They are the ones who call for soil preservation and water saving and then support intensive crops with high consumption of water, chemicals and losses of biodiversity, in agriculture and forestry."
"They are the ones who denounce fossil fuels, and diesel in particular, encouraging the use of individual electric car transport, and transferring the environmental costs to the exploitation of rare metals that are decisive in the construction of batteries."
"Those for the production of renewable energy, such as photovoltaics, or dedicated production biofuels, are willing to support the devastation of thousands of hectares of forest and sacrifice thousands of hectares of arable land."
As I couldn't communicate with CDU through Facebook or Messenger, I posted my question on Whatsapp (917 771 694). They emailed me and the response was… They didn't give me any response.
The full CDU Program can be consulted here.
PAN
The People-Animals-Nature PAN, under the motto “We're still on time”, presents an electoral program organized in 13 chapters, the first being dedicated to the Climate Crisis, Ecological Justice, and Economic Transition.
The PAN highlights the following measures from its chapter “Climate Crisis, Ecological Justice, Economic Transition”:
– Approve the Climate Law
– Dignify the relevance of the Ministry of Environment in the hierarchy of the State (currently the third to last in the Organic Law of the Government)
– Strive for the inclusion of the crime of Ecocide in the list of crimes for which the International Criminal Court has competence to intervene
– Exclude economic considerations from Environmental Impact Assessments
– Do not authorize oil exploration and close coal plants until 2023
– Democratize energy, decentralizing its production, based on shared self-consumption
– Create the 2035 Rail Plan that connects all district capitals
– Suspend the construction of Montijo airport until the preparation of the Strategic Environmental Assessment is assured
– Create a pole for hydrogen technologies
– Increase Waste Management Fees sent to landfill or incineration
– Invest in packaging ecodesign
– Tax benefits for companies that prevent food waste
– Financial, tax and social incentives for those who intend to set up as an organic farmer
– IRS deductions for those who buy organic
– Extend the Carbon Tax to meat production
– “Deseucaliptar” Portugal
Um Vision magazine article of September 19, entitled “Fact-check: does PAN not propose, in its electoral program, measures that are already in force? "contrasts data in relation to another article ("PAN proposes environmental measures that are already in force" - an evaluation of the chapter "Climate Crisis, Ecological Justice, Economic Transition" of the party's electoral program) also from VISION (17/09/2019 ) which mentions that the PAN proposed measures already in force in its electoral program.
In the middle of “he says he said” and “is it in force or not”, I confess that I was a little confused…
To my question "What are your concrete measures regarding the Climate Crisis?" and to a question about the PAN's position on the VISION articles, the answers were… They didn't give me any answers.
The complete PAN Program can be consulted here.
Left Block
The Left Block presents in its Electoral Program, a specific program for Climate Emergency.
Let's get to know better what BE says:
“Since the United Nations recognized the existence of climate change in the 70s, global emissions have practically doubled. We have a decade left for emergency measures that can stop potentially irreversible processes, the time for mere declarations of intent is over. This program for the climate emergency assumes the responsibility of a response in the first legislature of this decade, based on public investment and social justice policies».
“Thus, in times of climate emergency, the Left Block presents the following fundamental axes for an energy transition that prevents catastrophe and defends people: the development and electrification of public transport, rail and road; territorial and productive adaptation to climate change, with a new agricultural and forestry policy, protection of water resources, combating the production and consumption of disposable and single-use plastics; accelerating the transition to renewable energies, with a focus on decentralized solar production”.
This is the BE program with its various subchapters:
1. A program for climate emergency
A. Car-free city centers with free public transport
1.1 Transforming mobility in metropolitan areas
1.2 Metropolitan areas are not just big cities
1.3 Transforming mobility throughout the territory, without exclusions
B. A national railway plan to change mobility and territorial cohesion
C. Road accessibility throughout the territory
D. Adaptation of production and territory to climate change
1.4 Industrial conversion to reduce emissions
1.5 Transforming agriculture and forestry
1.6 Defending water as an ecological, economic and social resource
1.7 Plastic Reduction and Elimination of Single Use
1.8 Responding for sea workers and marine biodiversity
E. Democratizing energy to respond to climate change and energy poverty
1.9 More renewable electricity
1.10 Decentralized solar production based on shared self-consumption
1.11 Program for energy efficiency in social housing
1.12 Eliminate excessive rents, lower the bill and eradicate energy poverty
1.13 Creation of the municipal energy trader
1.14 Legal and institutional adaptations
Some of the sub-chapters present statistical data that support “The Problem” and BE's position, followed by “O Bloco Proposes” with BE's specific proposals for the identified problems.
BE's Facebook response to my question “What are your concrete measures regarding the Climate Crisis?” was …”Hello Analita, can you consult our program for climate emergency here”, which I kindly thanked. The BE was thus, the only political force in the campaign, which took the trouble to answer the question of an anonymous citizen, far from the cameras and electoral populisms…
The complete Left Block Program can be consulted here.
Now that we know better what the various political forces are proposing to do with regard to Climate Emergency, whoever is concerned with these issues – which we should all be – will be able to decide in conscience.
In these legislatives, more than voting for parties, we must raise an issue and then consciously decide independently of the political color, since, as we can see, Climate Emergency, directly or indirectly referred to, is part of the electoral program of our main political forces.
The question that arises is: who will be better able to put the measures proposed in practice, in defense of sustainability and the Planet?
In fact, at this moment, all the measures proposed by the different parties, when put into practice, could make a difference.
We must remain vigilant and put pressure on whoever wins the elections to put the proposed measures into practice.
We need to be aware of what those who govern us do, and demand more action and execution. We no longer have time to play “he says it does” and “political games”…
We, active citizens, need to demand this. Politicians do not exist to exercise power, just for power. They do exist to serve society and populations.
It is up to us, conscious and informed, to remind you of this fact…
(This information does not exempt the consultation and detailed reading of the electoral programs presented)
Author: Analita Alves dos Santos is a Mother concerned with environmental issues
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