Nine environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) defended this Tuesday as fundamental a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for the new Lisbon airport, a process that, they say, can be completed in October 2023.
A “quick decision on the Lisbon Airport will only be legally valid with a serious, participatory and transparent Strategic Environmental Assessment”, the organizations say in a statement, after having promoted a press conference on the matter in Lisbon.
The NGOs, which in July 2020 formed a coalition to judicially challenge the validity of the Environmental Impact Study (EIA) carried out on the complementary Montijo airport project, consider that “No more wasted time”and called for “the start of the SEA process for the Lisbon region airport plan as soon as possible”.
In the accounts of the nine associations, if the process begins now to define the scope of the SEA, with the participation of all the “key actors”, it will last three months, with the environmental report being ready between six to eight months later. , which is two more months for public discussion, and one or two months for the declaration with conclusions.
It takes a total of 15 months, fulfilling the legally mandated phases for SEAs, and from there, policymakers can make a “decision well-founded, legally secure, environmentally responsible and safeguard the public interest.
Although the sum of the deadlines points to October of next year, in round accounts and considering “bureaucracies of the process”, the final decision may, based on the calendar of the NGOs, be taken, at the latest, by the end of next year, he said. a source from one of the organizations to Lusa.
The SEA is mandatory by law and, the organizations defend, it must be attributed to a “public, independent and technically credible entity”, and have public interest as an “essential pillar of the process”and be participatory and transparent “from the beginning”.
NGOs want to be part of the process from the beginning. And they propose that nine “critical decision factors” be taken into account in the SEA.
Critical factors include, among others, the conservation of nature and biodiversity, the need to mitigate and adapt to climate change, public health (air, noise, water), and the safety, efficiency and capacity to operate air traffic.
Sustainability, transportation, planning and competitiveness are also critical factors.
The NGOs also consider that “exclusion limits” should be considered, beyond which a given alternative should not be considered.
In the statement, the organizations reaffirm that the use of the Montijo air base as a complementary or main airport is “unfeasible from the point of view of aeronautical and environmental safety, protection of biodiversity and public health.”
And he adds: “We also consider that maintenance, beyond what is strictly necessary, and expansion of the Portela airport are unfeasibleboth from the environmental point of view and from the point of view of safety and protection of public health.
Asked by Lusa if Montijo’s option should not be within the “exclusion limits” and as such should not even be considered, a source from one of the NGOs explained that it should be the scope definition of the AAE to decide what should be to study.
We do not rule out any path for now, only pointing out that Montijo has our disagreement and the expansion of the Humberto Delgado airport seems unfeasible to us for reasons associated in particular with the limits imposed by noise legislation, “added the source.
In the statement, referring to the fact that efforts to mitigate climate change must be present in all plans, programs, projects and public policies, the NGOs consider it “imperative” to articulate the airport plan with the National Railway Plan.
The group of NGOs is formed by the Association for the Defense of Cultural and Environmental Heritage of the Algarve (ALMARGEM), Associação Natureza Portugal, in association with WWF (ANP/WWF), Christian Association for Environmental Studies and Defense (A ROCHA), and Portuguese Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity (FAPAS).
The Territory and Environment Planning Study Group (GEOTA), the League for the Protection of Nature (LPN), the National Association for the Conservation of Nature (Quercus), the Portuguese Society for the Study of Birds ( SPEA) and the Sustainable Earth System Association (CERO).
Source: Observadora
