Portugal

It was in 1987, only one year after Portugal’s entrance into the European Union, that the country created its principal environmental law and not until the 1990s that Portugal made efforts to establish an environmental legislative scene. At the Johannesburg Summit in 2002, in response to the European Union’s Sustainability Strategy, Portugal introduced its national strategy for sustainable growth. Between 2002 and 2005, the subject of sustainable growth was under the jurisdiction of the Prime Minister’s Cabinet. There has been a growing recognition of the importance of environmental issues in Portugal, mainly since the late 1980s. The private sector has become more active and transparent in its sustainability performance over the past last decade. Portugal has recently developed a comprehensive environmental planning and programming framework that encompasses the European Union environmental requirements and a mix of environmental policy instruments including regulatory, economic and information-based measures.