The Minister of Environment and Energy pledged yesterday funding for the creation of the Garden of the Polytechnic University of Viseu (UPV), a sustainable project open to the community.
“We will analyse the proposal they sent us and see how we can accommodate it,” Maria da Graça Carvalho told journalists, noting that the support could come through the Environmental Fund or through a Norwegian program.
The Minister indicated that Portugal’s Environmental Fund “has about €1.1 billion, but it must cover several areas,” with “a portion for renaturalization, and adaptation to climate change, and it is there” that support may be found.
“And, therefore, there is a part of the Environmental Fund that we have dedicated to green spaces and this coming year, 2027, we have a boost through another program—the EEA Grants, funded by Norway, Liechtenstein, and Iceland—which in our environmental agenda is also for green spaces and protected areas,” she said.
As an example, she said the government has already funded other projects of this kind, “in very hot cities such as Évora and Beja,” or in Leiria, which was affected by storms in February this year, and in other cities across the country.
“And we will now analyse Viseu here and surely we will manage, at least partly, to accommodate what was requested,” promised Maria da Graça Carvalho.
The official spoke to journalists at the end of the ceremony marking the 47th anniversary of the Polytechnic University of Viseu (UPV), during which the rector and the president of the general council, José Costa and Arlindo Cunha, respectively, asked the minister for support for the project of a sustainable garden.
“Our academy longs for, and the minister can help, the implementation of the university garden, given that a master plan has already been drawn up,” stated the rector, José Costa.
In that sense, he highlighted some of the project’s points such as the “energy efficiency of the buildings, through surrounding rehabilitation; implementation of intelligent energy monitoring systems.”
And also the “increase in local energy production for self-consumption, through the installation of photovoltaic stations, improvement of water efficiency, implementation of sustainability and climate adaptation systems, tree planting and enhancement of green spaces.”
“Our challenge is to make this University Garden of Viseu something extraordinary, which truly becomes a place where different generations can meet, live and feel our land,” the rector emphasized.
A project that is also being discussed with the Municipality of Viseu, so that it “can be opened to society for this intergenerational meeting, where the younger learns from the older.”
