Portuguese MEP Lídia Pereira defended this Wednesday that “mechanisms are needed to guarantee that polluting will be expensive” and that investing in the energy transition is profitable.

“We need mechanisms to ensure that pollution is costly and that investment in energy efficiency is profitable,” said Lídia Pereira, head of the European Parliament’s delegation to the United Nations climate change conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, until Friday.

In a press conference with the European Commissioner for Climate Action, Wopke Hoekstra, in Baku, the Social Democratic MEP warned that reaching an agreement at COP29 ““It is in the interest of all countries.” and warned about the increasingly visible consequences of climate change.

“Unfortunately, we are witnessing increasingly frequent and violent extreme weather events. I want to remind you of the fires we saw in Portugal in September, and at the same time there were floods in Europe, in Spain, in Valencia and Malaga,” he said.

The consequences of climate change “they are before our eyes” and they need “a response that leads to their mitigation,” said the MEP.

The effects “are irreversible”, but the MEP was optimistic about the “agreement reached at the G20 level.” [as 20 maiores economias mundiais]which paves the way to encourage COP29 parties to reach a solid agreement,” he added.

Lídia Pereira said she hopes that at the end of the so-called climate summit an agreement can be reached with language that establishes a clear commitment by countries to reduce emissions.

Portugal worsened in terms of climate performance and fell two positions in an annual index, although it is still on the list of best-ranked countries.

Last year, Portugal was ranked 13th and this year the country is ranked 15th in a list of countries classified in the so-called “Climate Change Performance Index” (CCPI in its original acronym).

The CCPI is presented this Wednesday at COP29. It is the responsibility of the international organizations “Germainwatch”, “NewClimate Institute” and “CAN International”. CAN — Climate Action Network, is a global network of more than 1,900 civil society organizations in more than 130 countries that promotes actions to combat the climate crisis and achieve social justice.

The CCPI analyzes and scores the climate policies of each country, making a list of 66 countries (and the European Union), which represent 90% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

In fact, there are not 66 countries because the IPCC always comes out the first three places blanknoting that no country is fully aligned with the Paris Climate Agreement’s goal of keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius (ºC) relative to pre-industrial times.

Thus, in first place, which is actually fourth, Denmark remains, followed by the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, the latter with a large increase. The group of 15 countries in green is followed by the Philippines, Morocco and Norway, among others, closing the list with Portugal.

Another group of countries then appears in yellow, from 16th to 34th, in a list headed by Germany and closed by Malta.

Belgium appears in position 35, already on the orange list, which includes countries such as New Zealand, Italy and Hungary and which closes in position 52 with Australia.

The countries with the worst environmental performance, in red, are 15, including China and the United States, the largest GHG emitters, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the Russian Federation and Turkey.

The “ranking” also highlights the position of the European Union, in 17th place and the big climbs on the list of countries such as France, Ireland, Slovenia or Malaysia, in addition to the United Kingdom.

Twenty-five countries vow not to open more coal-fired power plants

This Wednesday it was also agreed that twenty-five countries, most of them rich, would commit to not opening more coal-fired power plants, in the hope of leading other nations to work to end the use of fossil fuels.

Large coal producers such as the United Kingdom, which has just closed its last coal plant, Canada, France, Germany and Australia signed the voluntary call during the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29), which runs until on Friday in Azerbaijan.

But China, India and the United States, among the five largest producersThey are not part of the commitment.

The signatories promise that their next climate plans will not include new coal plants, although the commitment does not require them to give up mining or exporting the material.

When burned, coal releases more carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere than oil and gas, and its use continues to increase around the world.

The intensive use of these fossil fuels, largely responsible for the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG), has contributed greatly to climate change.

Angola, Uganda and Ethiopia are other signatories of the agreement developed with the “Powering Past Coal” alliance, a coalition of governments, companies and organizations that aims to transition from coal to clean energy.

“The transition commitment away from fossil fuels must be achieved through real action on the ground,” said Wopke Hoekstra, European Commissioner for Climate Action, who signed the commitment.

New coal projects “must stop,” said British Energy Minister Ed Miliband.

The signature of Australia, whose Labor government, in power from 2022, is ambitious on climate issues, was welcomed by non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

“The coal door has closed. Now we have to block it,” Erin Ryan of the Australian Climate Action Network told Agence France-Presse in Baku.