In a short video message prepared for the annual meeting in Lisbon of the BCSD, Portugal’s main business sustainability group, the former prime minister of Portugal said that he wanted to “encourage your mission”.

He hailed the group’s work so far, stressing that its goal of a carbon-neutral economy “could not be more opportune”.

Portugal’s minister of environment, Joao Matos Fernandes, also commended the work done by the BCSD, as well as recalling the government’s own plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

“Today we are already producing more wealth with less emissions, but we need to do more,” he said. “There cannot be economic growth nor a reduction in inequalities without long-term policies for carbon neutrality.”

He accused the right-of-centre parties now in opposition against the Socialist government of lagging on environmental issues. Achieving carbon neutrality, he said, “means making choices and, in some cases, making a break with the past”.

Among other attendees at the conference was António Mexia, chairman of BCSD Portugal and of EDP, Portugal’s largest energy company, as well as Peter Bakker, president and CEO of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and Skip Laitner of the US Association for Environmental Studies and Sciences.