Over the last decade, Portugal has made important progress in protecting the environment and enhancing the quality of life of its people. This has been underpinned by the transposition of EU Environmental Directives, and financing from the EU Cohesion and Structural Funds. Indeed, Portugal’s success in attracting and absorbing finance, and in effectively using it to establish environmental infrastructure and to build human and institutional capacities, provides many lessons for countries within and outside the EU.

The principal aim of the OECD Environmental Performance Review programme is to help member and selected partner countries to improve their individual and collective performance in environmental management by...

In the decade since 2000, Portugal’s economy has enjoyed mixed fortunes: overall it has grown at a relatively slow rate, and GDP per capita remains low compared with OECD averages. Structural changes to the economy and increased environmentally related investment have also contributed to reducing environmental pressures. As a result, economic activity has generated relatively less pressure on the environment than in many other OECD countries. Environmental policies and institutions were consolidated and strengthened during the 2000s. The main challenges now are to implement environmental policies cost-effectively, and to promote a more coherent approach to environmental issues across all relevant sectors of public policy.