The environmental association also pointed out expectations for 2024, highlighting the result of the climate summit, from which a final assessment emerged that directly alludes to the end of fossil fuels.

“It is important to advance coherent measures towards this objective in a balanced way, with respect to the capacity to renew the planet’s resources”, Quercus stated.

From the six worst environmental events of 2023, in addition to major fires, such as the one in Odemira, the drought and the increase in global temperatures, Quercus stresses the deforestation in the name of the energy transition and the approval of the glyphosate herbicide for another 10 years, by the European Commission.

“This decision is surprising given the growing scientific health risks of glyphosate, namely which the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified as carcinogenic to animals and probably carcinogenic to humans”, explained Quercus, recalling that in Portugal, “the highest level of contamination in a sample” was detected, 30 times above the legal limit for each substance.

On the other hand, the best environmental events of 2023: the growing mobilisation of civil society for environmental issues; he creation of more marine protected areas in the Azores and the creation of the European Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture.

The association referred to the need to move forward next year, with “coherent measures” to end the use of fossil fuels, as defined at COP28, in Dubai.

Among Quercus’ expectations for 2024 are also improvement of ecosystem conservation and restoration policies, “by updating the scientific knowledge of fauna populations published in 2023”, better performance in waste management and the implementation of structural measures to solve water scarcity, especially in the south of the country.