At the COP26 Climate Conference, Portugal did not sign the Declaration for Zero Emissions from cars and goods vehicles, joining countries like France, Germany and Spain, or the United States of America and China, some of the main producers of automobiles on the planet.
We recall that this declaration marks the commitment of governments and industries to eliminate the sale of fossil fuel vehicles by 2035 from major markets and by 2040 worldwide.
Portugal committed, on the other hand, only to ban vehicles exclusively powered by fossil fuels until 2035, leaving out hybrid cars, as approved in the Basic Climate Law, last November 5th.
Several automobile groups were also left out of this declaration: among them, giants such as the Volkswagen Group, Toyota, Stellantis, BMW Group or the Renault Group.
On the other hand, Volvo Cars, General Motors, Ford, Jaguar Land Rover or Mercedes-Benz signed the Declaration for Zero Emissions from cars and commercial vehicles, as well as several countries: United Kingdom, Austria, Canada, Mexico, Morocco, Countries Netherlands, Sweden or Norway.
Interestingly, despite countries like Spain or the US not having committed, it was not an impediment for regions or cities in those same countries to sign, like Catalonia or New York and Los Angeles.
Other companies that are not car manufacturers have also signed this declaration, such as UBER, Astra Zeneca, Unilever, IKEA and even "our" EDP.
The 26th United Nations Climate Conference, taking place in Glasgow, takes place six years after the Paris Agreement, where it was established as a goal to limit the global average temperature rise of the planet between 1.5 ºC and 2 ºC compared to the pre- industrial.
The road transport sector has been one of the most pressured to reduce its emissions, which is manifesting itself in the biggest transformation ever in the automobile industry, which is following the path to electric mobility. Road transport is responsible for 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions (2018 data).