European Climate Commissioner warns about weather changes in Portugal

The Commissioner was speaking at a joint parliamentary hearing with the Committees on European Affairs and Environment and Energy, in which he began by saying that the world is becoming increasingly complicated and without prospects for improvement, pointing to the geopolitical situation and wars such as those in Ukraine and Iran.

By TPN/Lusa, in News, Environment · 13 May 2026, 08:03 · 1 Comments

Climate changes

“We cannot have illusions about the climate. It will get worse before it eventually gets better,” he said, pointing to the impacts of recent climate change in Portugal and asserting that extreme events will be repeated with greater intensity.

An increase of 1.5ºC compared to the pre-industrial era “will have very high costs,” so it is necessary to ensure measures to minimise the problems and for adaptation, he said.

Wopke Hoekstra said that it is necessary to make greater progress in energy production in the EU, using natural resources (wind, solar, and "eventually more nuclear energy for countries that have it"), and to end dependence on fossil fuels.

Less dependent on China

Answering questions from MEPs, the Commissioner then emphasised the need for the EU to be less dependent on China in battery production, but also in other areas, and referred to state subsidies (given by China, for example) to say that competitiveness is important "as long as the conditions are the same".

Regarding green energy production, Wopke Hoekstra mentioned the leadership of the Iberian Peninsula and the Scandinavian countries and pointed to the need to implement the same speed in battery production as happened in solar energy production.

And on energy interdependencies, he also advocated greater collaboration, recalling that the EU was born precisely through collaboration in the areas of coal and steel.

The European Commissioner for Climate, Carbon Neutrality and Clean Growth, Wopke Hoekstra, warned of the “very difficult times” the world is experiencing and cautioned that the European Union (EU) must move towards greater energy self-sufficiency.

Someone ought to tell this person that there were many periods in the "pre-industrial era" when the earth's climate was much warmer than today. The climate didn't begin in the year 1800. But perhaps it was dinosaur flatulence that was the cause of previous warm spells.

By Tony from USA on 13 May 2026, 22:29