According to data released by Pordata – the database of the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation – to mark World Environment Day, the per capita value of greenhouse gas emissions reached five tonnes of CO2 in 2023.

Behind only Malta (with 4.1 tonnes) and Sweden (4.2 tonnes), Portugal was the third country with the lowest greenhouse gas emissions.

The Pordata report also highlights the “significant reduction” of almost half in emissions from cars registered in Portugal, from 169 kg per kilometre in 2000 to 90 kg per kilometre in 2023.

The trend is common in most of the 27 EU member states, with Portugal in 6th place, behind Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Finland.

Despite the positive evolution in relation to greenhouse gas emissions, the report also points out the high levels of fine particle emissions from industry.

In 2022, the year to which the most recent data refer, Portugal emitted 2.24 grams of fine particles for each euro of wealth generated by industry, with the main culprits being the chemical and paper industries.

“The total amount of fine particles emitted into the atmosphere cannot be offset by the wealth generated by industry,” states the report.

In relation to this indicator, Portugal appears at the bottom of the list, with values ​​almost 100 times higher than those of Germany, which appears in fourth place.

Also on the negative side, Pordata cites the increase in urban waste, which has doubled since 1995, with 5.6 million tons recorded in 2023, an average of 1.4 kilos per inhabitant.

In addition to being one of the countries with the highest per capita value of municipal waste production in the EU context, Portugal is also among those that send the largest proportion of waste to landfill.

This is the destination of 54% of the waste produced, with only 17% being subject to organic recovery, 17% to energy recovery and 12% to multi-material recovery.

In the portrait on the occasion of World Environment Day, Pordata data confirms the “clear pattern of warming” in air temperature since 2000, based on records from meteorological stations in Bragança, Castelo Branco, Lisbon, Beja and Funchal.

The greatest increase in maximum temperature was recorded by the Bragança weather station, with a difference of almost 3ºC compared to 1960, from 17.2ºC to 20.1ºC.

In Funchal, the average and minimum temperatures recorded differences of more than 2ºC in the same period, from 18.6ºC to 21.0ºC and from 15.5ºC to 18.1ºC, respectively.

In terms of the configuration and protection of the territory, Portugal is one of the EU countries with the most land occupied by shrubs (17.5%) and one of the countries with the least land for agricultural production (16.3%).

Only 22.4% of the surface is classified as protected area, making it the 12th EU country with the lowest percentage of protected land area, but Portugal stands out positively in the protection of the marine area and could become, this year, the country with the largest extension of protected maritime areas.

With the new areas of the Recife do Algarve – Pedra do Valado Marine Natural Park and the revision of the Azores Marine Park, which comes into force in September, the protected maritime areas will exceed 200 thousand square kilometres, around 19% of the sea.

As for Portuguese beaches, the overwhelming majority of coastal beaches have excellent water quality, but only 67% of river and lake beaches meet this criterion.