Portugal’s Environment and Climate Action Minister defended this Thursday in Maputo, a “big reflection” on the economic future based on fossil fuels in Mozambique.
“Mozambique may be in a position that requires a great deal of reflection because a significant part of the bets it has made on its economic future, based on coal and now more on gas, may not be a bet for a very long future,” said João Matos Fernandes.
The Portuguese governor was speaking during an open class on the topic of the Glasgow Summit and its Implications for the Energy Transition, given at the Pedagogical University of Maputo.
For Matos Fernandes, gas will continue to be among the main types of fuel for decades, but the future looks towards renewable energies in the face of an increasingly ambitious environmental agenda to curb global warming, rising oceans and the proliferation of extreme weather events.
“The gas will certainly be used as fuel for decades, but I do not deny that my will is that this period of time be as short as possible, I am not a hypocrite before any of you”, stressed the Minister of Environment and Climate Action.
The minister also considered that Mozambique has “every right” to demand more from other countries, being among the most vulnerable to climate change, despite having almost insignificant levels of pollution.
“Countries like Mozambique have every right to demand from others, because they suffer through no fault of their own,” he stressed.
The Portuguese ruler believes that the country has enormous potential for renewable energy production, pointing to capacity building and training as essential.
Although with low levels of pollution, Mozambique, with a coastline of about 2,700 kilometers, is among the most vulnerable countries to climate change, facing cyclical floods and tropical cyclones.
This context places the country among the most interested in achieving the goals of the Paris agreement to curb global warming, rising oceans, and the proliferation of extreme weather events, but the challenges are enormous in the face of high poverty rates and the ambition to achieve an industrialized economy at a time when some fossil fuels remain among the main export products (such as coal and gas).
The 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 26) runs from October 31 until November 12 to update the targets of the countries that signed the Paris agreement.
The success of the summit will depend on setting more ambitious targets in each country and securing the necessary funding to help poorer countries make their own transitions to less polluting economies and to adapt to the effects of climate change.
The goal set in Paris is to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times by the end of the century.
