The Regional Secretary for the Environment and the Sea participated today in the second meeting of the Forum on Climate Changes.
The meeting essentially served to analyse the work that has been already developed by a commission in which the Azores are integrated and which accompanies the Portuguese, the European Union and the United Nations policies regarding the issues of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere and the subsequent climate changes.
The implementation of the CELES directive which regulates the imposition of the gas emission rates and the system for trading emission rights among countries to comply with the Kyoto protocol is particularly important for the Region.
In the Azorean case, there are two fundamental areas which were subjected to that directive, particularly energy and transports, which justify the commitment of the Government of the Azores in this issue.
Regarding energy, the Region’s situation does not present major concerns, because the component of renewable energies is already high and will be increasing in the forthcoming years.
With concern to the case of transports, the imposition of gas emission rates is more problematic due to the dependency of the Archipelago on civil aviation and maritime transport of goods.