The Climate Change National Adaptation Strategy (ENAAC 2020) established the following vision for Portugal:
A country adapted to climate change through the implementation of solutions based on technical and scientific knowledge together with good practices.
Following ENAAC 2020 guidelines concerning the increasing territorial vulnerabilities and risks, the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (AML) prioritised the PMAAC-AML development. This Plan, co-financed by POSEUR and the Lisbon Regional Operational Programme (POR Lisboa 2020), started in January of 2018 and will continue until July of 2019.
It comprises the whole metropolitan territory (3.015 square kilometres), with nearly 3 million inhabitants and represents 36.4% of the gross domestic product. The PMAAC-AML promotes awareness and studies climate change at local and metropolitan level, namely by identifying infrastructures adaptation measures and both public and private sectors adaptation practices to extreme climate events. Moreover, PMAAC-AML promotes climate change adaptation into municipal and inter-municipal planning and encourages cross cooperation among sectors and socio-economic stakeholders, strengthening AML territorial resilience.
In parallel, PMAAC-AML will also incite technical training (workshops) and institutional communication among the 18 AML municipalities aiming at developing climate change municipal adaptation strategies.
Furthermore, the adopted methodology proposes awareness and participation through workshops comprising strategic metropolitan stakeholders as well as actions involving territorial municipal communities. It is expected that these municipal workshops, together with sectoral specialists’ involvement, will result in a better PMAAC-AML with richer knowledge.
The PMAAC-AML also envisages climate change non-technical information dissemination, including alerts and awareness actions among the educational community and metropolitan inhabitants, workers and visitors.
The Lisbon city will integrate the appropriate measures and actions proposed by PMAAC-AML. Inversely, the municipality will contribute to increase knowledge and integrate climate change metropolitan adaptation measures, through the results of the Municipal Climate Change Strategy (EMAAC), approved in 2017.
At local level, EMAAC is operationalised through the Sustainable Energies and Climate Action Plan (PAESC), approved in 2018 and developed within the scope of the Covenant of Mayors, subscribed by the Lisbon city. PAESC, focusing on climate mitigation and adaptation, constitutes an environmental policy action plan as well as an environmental monitoring tool.