Cuts to gas and electricity bills will almost certainly (albeit eventually) follow the pivotal stand taken by Portuguese prime minister Pedro Passos Coelho on the first day of the special EU summit on climate change in Brussels this week.
The PSD coalition leader had hinted that Portugal was not prepared to sign into a new agreement setting cuts to Europe’s emissions.
His reluctance stemmed from the “energy blockade” created by France, along the Pyrenees, which effectively stymies sales of Portugal’s excess green energy.
The blockade also affects Spain but at the 11th hour Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy dropped out of the talks, and left Passos Coelho to “go it alone” – which he did admirably.
As Observador website’s story proclaimed, “Passos put his foot down” and Portugal will now be “better connected to Europe’s energy grid”.
As financial news portal Dinheiro Vivo points out, this will undoubtedly lead to cuts in gas and electricity prices further down the line.
For now, what Passos swung was an agreement that the paltry 1.6% of energy that the two Iberian countries are allowed to sell to the continental grid should increase to 15% by 2030, and to 10% within the next five years (by 2020).
It is a huge achievement considering the reluctance of French Prime Minister François Hollande to invest in green energy.
Dinheiro Vivo explains that PM Hollande “fears” that Portugal and Spain’s green energy could threaten France’s nuclear supply – France’s chief source of electricity.
Nevertheless, Portugal’s vote on climate change was needed, thus Passos Coelho played his cards like a pro and everyone seems to have ended the first long day of the summit “happily”.
As the Financial Times reported this morning, “talks dragged on into the early hours of Friday morning before European leaders finally agreed to a cut of at least 40% from 1990 levels. Environmentalists have slammed this goal as the bare minimum required for the EU to play its role in containing global warming, but diplomats argue that it was the toughest target that could win broad political support across Europe.”
