Climate change is a dynamic process, discussed for around 30 years, and requires “planning and permanent attention”, began by explaining António Carmona Rodrigues, professor at Universidade Nova de Lisboa. “Where they will take us and when” is an unknown and, despite the effects being different in different parts of the world, Portugal finds itself in a “more worrying” position regarding the impacts, said the former minister of Public Works, Transport and Housing.
In the same sense, the executive director of AJAP, Firmino Cordeiro, referred to the country’s high exposure to the consequences of climate change, which create “more degraded soils and cyclical droughts”. In agreement, the professor pointed out that the disparate distribution of resources means that water reserves “have to be seen in a different way and more interconnected”, also using solutions such as desalination and the reuse of wastewater. Although the sector is “dynamic and quick to adapt”, he pointed out, there is an urgent need to rehabilitate infrastructures such as dams in the interior that “give zero” to urban supply and which could be more dedicated to agriculture. In order to adapt, the “importance of research” also stands out, particularly on how to improve the resistance of crops to unfavorable conditions from a climatic point of view. For Aline Hall de Beuvink, university professor and commentator for SIC Notícias, the “empirical knowledge of farmers”, along with science, will be “one of the bases” for adapting to climate change.
