Speaking to reporters after an address to the plenary of the 25th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP25), João Pedro Matos Fernandes expressed the conviction that an agreement would emerge from the talks but stressed that the issue of markets cannot be sidelined.


“Technical work has been done, now it is up to non-technicians to be able to close” negotiations at the COP25, he said.


Portugal’s position is that all emission credits that have existed since the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 must disappear, he said, adding that members of the European Union must join in taking a “very uncompromising” stance in this regard.


After Kyoto “the market was invaded by carbon credits, certainly well-intentioned, but which cannot be controlled” and unless they disappear it is not possible “in any situation, to move towards a new mechanism for carbon markets.”


The current situation allows “absurd “ accounting, such as “country A selling to country B and both country A and B can count these credits” towards their account, he stressed.


In his speech to the international delegations, Matos Fernandes pledged that “Portugal will comply, is complying and does not accept others failing” to move to carbon neutrality as part of the bid to combat climate change.


“We cannot allow others to fail because we will not fail either,” he told reporters, noting that because of its geographical location in the Mediterranean basin, Portugal is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change, with droughts advancing in the south of the country and many kilometres of coastline under threat from the encroaching sea.