The day of overshoot, explains the organisation, indicates that from 1 January to 7 May, the Portuguese consumed as many natural resources as the Earth's various ecosystems can regenerate over the course of a year. From now on, the Portuguese continue to consume naturally, but they use more resources, on land or at sea, than would theoretically be available, and emit more carbon dioxide than nature can absorb.

Improvements in sustainability

Last year, the day the country exhausted its resources was 5 May, indicating that sustainability has slightly improved.

The stabilisation in the consumption of the planet's resources is perceived by the environmental association Zero, which, in a statement commenting on the country's ecological footprint, cites the slight improvement compared to the previous year.

But even so, the country begins to exceed the resources available to feed the Portuguese lifestyle after less than five months of the year. This means that if every person on Earth lived like an average Portuguese person, humanity would require about 2.9 planets to sustain its resource needs.

At the European average

The result places Portugal at the average of the European Union (EU), which this year had its overshoot day on 3 May, a slight improvement also compared to last year.

In the EU, some countries have long since exhausted their resources for the whole year. According to the "Global Footprint Network," Luxembourg's consumption exceeded its resource limits as early as 17 February.

Worldwide level

In the world, the worst-ranked is Qatar, which exhausted its share on 4 February. On the other side of the table is Honduras, which has only one overshoot day on 27 November.

The ecological footprint assesses human needs for renewable resources and essential services and compares them with the Earth's capacity to provide them (biocapacity).