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The metropolitan area of Porto (AMP) already has a plan for adapting to climate change. The problem, assumed by the scientific coordinator of the document, the geographer Ana Monteiro is that there is a lack of information on the different climate mosaics of the AMP, where the meteorological data are not always obtained in the best way, she criticized. The scientist called for an investment in this area, because without these data, she noted, it becomes difficult to propose adequate measures to more specific plots of the territory and to monitor the effects of the measures that will be taken to cope with climatic changes. 19659002] The Minister of the Environment closed the presentation session of the plan, which took place this Friday in Gaia, but did not arrive in time to hear criticism of the quality of regional weather data. In addition to the series produced in the classic station Serra do Pilar between 1880 and 2007, there are recordings since 2009 of the automatic station that the Portuguese Institute of Sea and Atmosphere has installed at this location, Pedras Rubras station, has changed its location from the control tower to the airport sign Francisco Sá Carneiro and to the station Porto S. People on the Circunvalação road to Porto, in addition to those obtained since 2015 on the weather radar Serra da Freita in Arouca
In statements to the press, João Pedro Matos Fernandes recalled that he did not keep the IPMA, but he was open to analyze the needs, in this field and others, which will be presented to him by the metropolitan area, from this document. A few minutes earlier, Ana Monteiro found it urgent to invest in new meteorological data collection stations to ensure a reading of the region's climatic diversity – which, everyone, is temperate, gentle, insistent – and congratulated Gaia House for Having reopened with the University of Porto the classic resort Serra do Pilar in 2014, after a seven year interregnum.
After the session, the local mayor and current president of the Porto Agglomeration, Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues, assumed that it is the responsibility of local authorities, with the support of the academic world, to complete IPMA network and ensure the production of reliable data, essential to improve the effectiveness of climate change adaptation actions. Head of a municipality that is already advancing in the work of drawing up a municipal scoping plan, the Socialist admitted that it is necessary to place the topic in the local agenda of the MPA, because in the region there are different sensitivities for these issues,
In the MPA, only Porto, Matosinhos and Vila do Conde subscribed to the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, and only the first two have sent an Action Plan with concrete targets emissions reductions, which are monitored. The rest of the region is further behind, and Ana Monteiro has challenged the audience – which many of the 17 councilors in the metropolitan area lacked – to participate in this global movement and make concrete commitments. The problem is that, in the different phases of production of the coordinated plan, the team has encountered difficulties in accessing information from municipalities, there have been cases where it has not even received a response to the questionnaires sent
It is not surprising that, besides the actual climate risks, such as coastal erosion and sea level rise, the increase in the number of days with extreme temperatures, heavy rainfall, drought or fast winds – with different impacts in different areas of the region that range from Póvoa de Varzim to Arouca – the AMP faces simultaneously the risk of 39, a "serious climate illiteracy" policy makers, technical and demographic in general, according to Ana Monteiro. For whom the aging of the population and poverty make it difficult for locals to assume these issues first and foremost in their lives. This is coupled with the belief that science and technology will solve the problems we face.
The challenge is to convince local politicians, municipal structures, businesses and citizens that everyone has a role to play. in this effort of adaptation which, from the minister's point of view, does not cancel the commitment to take measures to mitigate the effects of human action on the climate, by reducing the greenhouse gas emissions. During the session, good examples of the metropolitan area were mentioned, such as the 100,000 trees project or the creation of the Serras do Porto park, but there is a long way to go from the beginning of the planning of interventions in the area. green spaces. road network, mobility, energy efficiency, etc.
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