Several of the main Portuguese organizations for the defense of the environment issued a joint statement in which they consider “illegal and unacceptable” the Government’s announcement about the advancement of the Montijo and Alcochete airports.
The text is signed by the organizations Almargem, Associação Natureza Portugal / WWF, A ROCHA, FAPAS, GEOTA, League for the Protection of Nature, Quercus, Portuguese Society for the Study of Birds and ZERO.
Together, the associations challenge “a hasty decision, without the support of a true strategic environmental assessment (EAE) duly framed in a National Airport Plan.”
Montijo or Alcochete? Both. What changes with the decision on the new airport
The associations comment in detail on the hypotheses of Montijo and Alcochete.
Regarding the first, after recalling that they had requested the annulment of the Environmental Impact Statement on the Montijo complementary airport, for being “imposed by the government, with predetermined solutions”, they now criticize the intention, “made public and not denied” . ”, of the Ministry of Infrastructures to “renounce the current process of Strategic Environmental Evaluation (AAE) for the location of the new Lisbon airport”.
These associations, he recalls, “totally disagreed with the way in which the government imposed this evaluation, with predetermined solutions, but they disagreed even more with the supposed intention of the government to install a temporary airport in Montijo by 2035 without any type of strategic instrument. to support him.”
In addition, given the size of the investment in Montijo, of the order of “hundreds of millions of euros”, they fear that “the infrastructure, in practice, will go from provisional to definitive”.
Regarding Alcochete, announced to later replace the Montijo and Portela airports, the organizations consider it “incomprehensible” that the Government makes this announcement “at the same time” and that of a new AAE for the new location of the airport.
Thus, they consider that “either the Government tries to condition the process from the beginning, or tries to avoid the legislation related to the SEA that could support this decision.”
On the other hand, the associations draw attention to “the lack of strategic vision of the government, by not having a National Plan for Airports, neither for passengers nor for cargo, which must be articulated with the National Road Plan and the National Railway Plan” .
The statement also mentions that when European governments take initiatives to protect citizens by reducing airport capacity, such as the Netherlands, which decided to reduce the capacity of Schiphol airport, which serves Amsterdam, by 11% compared to 2019 due to to the impact of noise and greenhouse gas emissions, despite its location, 20 km from the city, “it is perfectly anachronistic for the Portuguese government to make an investment that could worsen the situation in Lisbon”.
In fact, environmental defense organizations “are concerned about the announced investment of hundreds of millions of euros to increase the fluidity of aircraft traffic in Portela.”
The “lack of common sense on the part of the Government” and the “bad example of Portugal” are also pointed out, when announcing the construction of two airports during the United Nations Conference on the Oceans. “A conference where the UN Secretary General and governments came to commit to more environmental sustainability and respect for science,” they emphasize.
Finally, “the associations call on the government to respect the spirit of national and community legislation.”
Specifically, they want “an airport solution to be found for the Lisbon region that allows for a response to the climate challenges facing humanity, the objectives of promoting biodiversity and protecting environmental values, the enormous problem of public health that is today the Portela airport”. , the need to effectively integrate air transport and rail transport and, finally, the urgency of moving towards sustainable forms of tourism”.
Source: Observadora
