SYNTHESIS INE@COVID-19, 4-Jan-2021

January . 04 . 2021 SYNTH SIS IN @ COVID-19 www.ine.pt page 7/20 Communication Unit | tel: +351 21 842 61 10 | sci@ine.pt The state of the environment in 2020 continued to mirror the pandemic situation In 2020, compared to the previous year, due to a sharp contraction in economic activity and constraints on the mobility of people in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: • Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions were reduced by 8.5%; • Final energy consumption decreased by 7.2%; • Air quality improved, with 33.8% of days with very good air quality (+2.7 percentage points (p.p.) on the previous year); • The energy produced from renewable sources accounted for 59.6% of the total (+5.4 p.p. compared to 2019). But not all environmental indicators had a positive evolution: • The performance of the municipal waste per unit of GDP ratio worsened (108.5, after 99.4 in 2019) because of the 8.4% decrease in GDP, as the volume of waste decreased by 0.06%; • The urban waste management targets set for 2020 were far from fully met: » The indicator for preparation for reuse and recycling decreased by 3 p.p. to 38%, worsening the convergence with the 50% target; » The disposal of urban waste in landfills increased by 8 p.p. to 53%, far from the 35% target; • The degree of compliance of enterprises to the adoption of environmental management and protection activities decreased: 16.3% of industrial enterprises developed environmental management and protection activities, i.e., 1.8 p.p. less compared to 2019. More information is available at: Environment statistics – 2020 (22 December 2021)