The minister was commenting to Lusa on the results of the COP25 summit, which ended on Sunday morning – two days behind schedule - after two weeks.

From the outset, he said, there was a "huge difference in expectations" between what the summit was supposed to discuss and conclude and "the world out here", with public opinion very sensitive to the results.

"From day one, in fact, this COP had little to discuss,” he said. “But it is true that in the little it had to discuss, or above all in the little it had to conclude, it did not conclude. And in that respect very little came out of it."

In his comments to Lusa, the minister said that the conclusions drawn at COP25 go "in the right direction" from the point of view of their ambitions, with agreement in relation to gender equality, but that it was not possible to conclude “the only article that was still open in the … rulebook of the Paris Agreement” of 2015, in which virtually all the world’s countries committed themselves to combat climate change and set binding rules for this.

The article in question is Article 6 and at COP25 the aim was to eliminate, "or at least dramatically limit carbon licences that come from the the past and end the double accounting of these licences" and this "could not be concluded," the minister lamented.

Article 6 is the one that allows countries to cooperate in implementing "Nationally Determined Contributions" to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and relates to the creation of rules, modalities and procedures for a market mechanism – the so-called carbon market.

At present it is still possible – under an earlier climate agreement, the Kyoto Protocol – for more developed countries and bigger polluters buy the credits of less polluting countries.

Matos Fernandes lamented the lack of an agreement on this issue but stressed that "Europe has done very well" in this regard and that "it is a thousand times preferable not to have an agreement" than to have reached "a bad deal" in this area.

"Rules have been set for this year and we believe that in July it is possible to close this Article 6,” he said. “But it's a very negative sign. Because if there was little to decide in concrete and this little that there was, was not been decided, that is still a negative sign for everyone."

Matos Fernandes also took the view that Europe "did very well" in unveiling its so-called new "Green Deal" at the same time as COP25.

"And Portugal has been and will be [doing] well,” he added. “Because it not only presented its good examples and showed that it is indeed on the front line in the fight against climate change, but if some negative message emerges from this COP … in the sense that some wanted less ambition, Portugal [at least] will not backtrack one millimetre” on its plans to move towards carbon neutrality.