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In 2023, Canada experienced what can only be described as climate chaos. Wildfires destroyed four times more Canadian forests than ever before in a year. In British Columbia, fires cost the provincial government $1 billion in firefighting services, and insurance providers accrued nearly $750 million in claims. A series of wildfires in Quebec saw residents across the Northeast imbued in toxic smoke — costing the government of Ontario approximately $1.3 billion in added health costs in one week. Nova Scotia’s immense flooding created the wettest summer on record in the Maritimes.
Not only did these disasters create eye-watering price tags for governments at all levels, but they also ravaged the lives of families and individuals. Across Canada, over 200,000 individuals were under evacuation orders during the 2023 wildfire season. Furthermore, the average Canadian household receives an extra $700 in expenses from “climate-related damages” every year. The Canadian Climate Institute describes Canadians to receive this additional cost “in the form of higher grocery bills due to supply-chain disruptions, … rising home insurance [charges,] and tax hikes to pay for disaster recovery and infrastructure repairs.”
Looking ahead, if the world surpasses the 1.5°C Paris Agreement global warming target, these current costs and damages will be overshadowed by what Canadians will experience in the coming decades. Governments will experience crippling climate-related bills, communities will become uninhabitable, and economic security will slip further from our reach.
What Has Portugal Done Differently?
Despite experiencing political disruptions in the form of a presidential corruption scandal last year, Portugal has been setting itself up for renewable energy success for decades by creating infrastructure that prevails regardless of its political climate. Due to Portugal’s geography, its population mainly resides along the Atlantic coast and is particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels, droughts, flooding, and heat waves. In 2017, Portugal experienced the second hardest hit by fires, costing “more than 100 deaths along with losses of over one billion euros.”
Unlike other countries, Portugal took matters into its own hands. Recognizing its unique risks early, Portugal’s “first law guaranteeing grid access for Independent Power Producers (IPPs) using renewable energy sources came into force in 1988”, and the state installed twelve onshore wind turbines in 1992. Legislators in Portugal have tapped into their regional energy sources, focusing development projects on wind, hydro, and solar energy “as the country with the highest number of sunshine hours in [all] of Europe.”
By 2010, renewable energy made up almost 45% of Portugal’s electricity, an increase of 17% from 2005. Portugal has already experienced multiple instances in which the renewable energy produced surpasses its resident’s consumption. Portugal had the foresight to invest in renewables rather than fossil fuels and promised a carbon-neutral future by 2050 in 2016, compared to the EU doing so in 2019. Additionally, the country closed its last coal plant in 2021, nine years before its original target of being coal-free by 2030.
With these efforts, Portugal has become a trendsetter in finding renewable energy solutions. According to Reuters, “61% of Portugal’s electricity in 2023” was created by renewable energy— 12% higher than in 2022. Because of its commitment to renewables, Portugal has steadily risen to become the “32nd largest exporter of electricity in the world,” despite having only 0.13% of the global population.
As such, Manuel Pinho, Portugal’s Former Minister of Economy and Innovation, stated the following in 2009 that rings true today: “In the same way as Finland is famous for mobile phones, France for its high-speed trains and Germany for its industry, Portugal will become known for renewable energy.”
149 Hours of Hope
In November 2023, while a UN study discovered that Canada has the largest gap between climate commitments and actual action, Portugal quietly ran a week-long experiment that gave concrete hope for the future of renewables. From October 31 to November 6, 2023, Portugal lived, worked, and ate, on 100% renewable energy.
Overall, the country’s wind, hydro, and solar energy delivered 1,102 GHw of power for “residential and industrial use” — 262 GHw more than necessary. The experiment was so successful that Portugal gave its excess electricity to Spain for 95 hours during the test. According to Redes Energéticas Nacionais (REN), the company managing Portugal’s electricity and gas networks, wind energy supplied 25% of consumption, 23% from hydroelectric power, 7% from solar power, and 6% from biomass energy.
There were a variety of steps taken to achieve this incredible accomplishment. The first task was adapting its existing grid system to allow for the usage of renewables. In the early 2000s, the Portuguese government purchased most of its domestic grids from private companies and upgraded them to allow electricity production and consumption from renewable sources. In 2015, Portugal also implemented a carbon tax, a price set on each tonne of greenhouse gas emitted. This tax aimed to motivate carbon emitters to shift to less carbon-intensive ways of production. REN’s 2021 Strategic Plan has been dedicated to “the reduction of carbon emissions by 50% by 2030 (compared to 2019), and carbon neutrality in 2040, ten years earlier than defined by the European Union.”
Likewise, Portugal committed to investing in storing renewable energies, such as hydropower reservoirs and solar batteries. Recently, the Portuguese government has put an income tax relief in place for those creating and using green energy in their household to encourage the “[decentralized] production of renewable electricity.”
All these efforts have shown that it is possible to power down fossil fuel infrastructure, adapt existing infrastructure to accommodate renewables, and encourage the production of renewables at a household level. Humans can adapt, one clean megawatt at a time.
In Canada, Partisanship Trumps Progress, Promises, and Practicality
While Canadians watch other countries set aside political differences to work together towards a common goal, it increasingly becomes maddening to watch Canadian leaders debate whether climate change is a legitimate threat.
Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre has worked hard to frame climate protection as an assault on freedom and affordability. Poilievre has campaigned across the country criticizing the proposed cap on oil and gas pollution, and he has said he will “support pipelines south, north, east, and west.” He has also declared to his supporters that the Liberal Party’s Clean Fuel Standard and Clean Electricity Regulation is another form of carbon tax that endangers their jobs and families. Yet, Conservative denial reached humorous levels last summer when Poilievre had to cancel “axe the carbon tax” rallies due to wildfire threats.
There is a denial of the climate crisis throughout the Conservative Party, including British Columbia’s Conservative Party Leader, John Rustad. Rustad released a statement in November that read, “British Columbians are NOT facing an existential threat from our changing climate. … It isn’t a crisis.”
Furthermore, oil and gas firms have increasingly become bold in their statements that they are waiting for the results of the next election before deciding whether to cut emissions drastically and begin transitioning their infrastructure. CEO of Yangarra Resources, Jim Evaskevich, boldly declared this last year when he said, “We’re going to look at the federal election and go, ‘yeah no[,] we’re not spending that money, no way.’ Because our fervent hope … (Trudeau) is gone.”
Still, Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government is not without criticism. They have a track record of ignoring climate promises and approving projects such as the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and the Teck Frontier mine, which planned to extract large amounts of oil until 2066. Despite evidence that renewable energies offer a cheaper and more enjoyable future, Canadian leaders repeatedly choose the status quo.
Why Canada Needs Portugal’s Blueprint
Countries cannot naturally replicate Portugal’s renewable success and aspects of its infrastructure as quickly as they would hope. Namely, Portugal has a population of only 10 million and boasts a natural landscape well-suited for harvesting renewable energy.
With that in mind, there are key principles in Portugal’s approach to renewable energy that Canada can adopt. Firstly, public opinion on climate change being a partisan issue must change. Portugal is seemingly not politically divided on climate change as “most Portuguese agree on the need to develop renewable energy for environmental and economic reasons.”
Secondly, Portugal’s project informs us that electricity grids are equipped and capable of renewable energy. It is possible to store renewable energy efficiently with enough dedication to building infrastructure that will last decades into the future. Diversification of renewable sources is important, and Canada should take full advantage of the abundance of green energy potential available to their residents. Lastly, we must reduce gas combustion until it is unrequired as a backup source.
As for clean energy, the wealthiest nations fall far behind other countries like Portugal. Although a small country, Portugal has become symbolic of brighter days to come.
Edited by Isaac Code
