The President of the Republic, António José Seguro, lamented yesterday that, faced with such grave problems as those arising from climate change, “some countries and political leaders” have allowed themselves to be absorbed by other urgencies, geopolitical, economic and social.
In a message sent to the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity, this year awarded to Alianza Ceibo, a coalition of Indigenous peoples of the Amazon, António José Seguro stressed that the issue of climate change is “a priority” and that its urgency requires continuing to convene world leaders for a global political alignment, “with responsibility and without hesitation”.
In the message (the President is today on an official visit to the Vatican) António José Seguro highlighted the importance of the prize awarded today and then considered it “paradoxical” that, after a pandemic and facing problems such as climate change, some leaders have allowed themselves to be absorbed by other urgencies.
“The gravity and succession of these episodes, some of them unusual, divert attention from this problem and delay the pressure and commitment that the responses require. And the more we delay prevention, the greater the effort to remedy the effects,” he warned.
Climate change is no longer unpredictable, the President emphasized, recalling the storms that have occurred in Portugal, but also heat waves or pressures on water, agriculture, or health.
“The indifference of some elites and some interest groups toward this reality is only unsettled, often, by a citizen’s cry, by the voices of the anger of the ordinary citizen, of those who refuse to pact with a future without a future,” he said in the message, in which he congratulated the winners and said that distinguishing them is to recognize the fundamental role of Indigenous peoples in protecting ecosystems essential to the global climate balance.
“It is on the ground, in the concrete gesture of those who take care of a forest, or a river, that the climate of our planet is decided,” he emphasised.
At the award ceremony, at the Gulbenkian Foundation, the president of the institution, António Feijó, also lamented the current offensive against any environmental practice or policy.
António Feijó said that in a first phase of the prize’s existence, six years ago, sustainability was valued, which later moved to the phase in which it was thought that technology would solve problems caused by environmental changes, and now the current phase, in which effective solutions for mitigation or moderation of climate change coexist with the offensive against the environment.
An offensive against any environmental practice or policy, which, he said, “penalizes even any speech, investigation or public advocacy that supports that policy.”
“The Prize was awarded in the conviction that the environmental issue is, in fact, an existential risk for the species, and that in this matter it is ill-advised to clash with the principle of reality,” he warned, concluding then that “the unfettered extractivism of existing natural resources, which many defend, implies the death of nature.”
The former German chancellor Angela Merkel, chair of the prize jury, recalled that last year she insisted on protecting the climate in light of the tense global situation, spoke of the extreme climatic phenomena this year and of the excess deaths caused by extreme heat, which will occur in the future with greater frequency, intensity and duration.
Reasons, she said, to not slow down efforts in favor of climate protection.
The representatives of Alianza Ceibo said that climate change is nature lamenting, pointed out that the voices of women must be heard more in the world, and considered that there is a trend of destruction and that money makes people sick.
They also left a plea: “We call on big companies and governments to stop exploiting our territory and the planet.”
