Lisbon, Dec. 26, 2025 (Lusa) - The Portuguese Nature Restoration Plan and the launch of the deposit-refund system for packaging will be some of the topics that will mark the coming year in the environmental field, according to the Portuguese environmental association Zero.
In a statement taking stock of 2025, the environmental association also points out what it considers to be the critical moments of 2026 for the environment in Portugal, highlighting the finalisation and submission to the European Commission of the restoration plan, which is due to be delivered on the first day of September.
This implies, Zero argues, the design of "robust financial incentives that mobilise private owners, who hold the overwhelming majority of Portugal's rural land and without whom any land restoration strategy will be doomed to failure".
In the maritime domain, it will also be necessary to have strictly protected areas to allow for the restoration of ecosystems, warns Zero.
The association recalls that, after four years of delay, the deposit and refund system for plastic and metal beverage containers is due to be launched in April 2026. It says that these systems allow for very high collection rates.
Next year should also see the updating of the Roadmap for Climate Neutrality and the Green Industrial Strategy, provided for in the Basic Climate Law and yet to be created, recommends Zero, which points out that Portugal has until 31 July 2026 to transpose the EU Right to Repair Directive, under which consumers can demand that faulty products (such as household appliances and smartphones) be repaired more easily, cheaply and quickly, rather than replaced, encouraging manufacturers to create durable products and promoting a circular and sustainable economy through tools such as information forms and repair incentives.
According to the association, the year that is now ending was marked by the European Union's "race to the abyss of “business as usual”’, approving a simplification agenda that is actually a deregulation agenda.
Zero believes that environmentally positive developments that marked the year were the entry into force of the High Seas Treaty, the creation of the North-East Atlantic Emission Control Area by the International Maritime Organisation, the implementation by several local authorities of highly efficient urban waste collection and management systems, and the creation of the Lusophone Climate Network.
Negative factors include the lack of effectiveness in resolving the urban waste problem and the inertia of nature conservation policies in Portugal, exemplified by the lack of a National Register of Classified Natural Figures, as well as recurring delays in the implementation of the Basic Climate Law.
FP/AYLS // AYLS
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