Taming wildfires in the context of climate change: The case of Portugal | Launch event

The frequency and severity of extreme wildfires are on the rise in Portugal, causing unprecedented disruption and increasingly challenging the country’s capacity to contain losses and damages. These challenges are set to grow in the context of climate change, highlighting the need to scale up wildfire prevention and climate change adaptation. In 2022-2023 the OECD’s Environment Directorate has worked closely with Portugal’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change to organise a policy dialogue on Portugal’s cross-government efforts planned and underway to strengthen its resilience against wildfires in light of climate change. In this process all relevant national – and some subnational – stakeholders were consulted to take stock of – and reflect on – achievements to date and to critically assess where there could be areas for improvement. The dialogue was part of a cross-country dialogue among OECD Members (including Australia, Costa Rica, Greece and the United States), where particularly wildfire-affected countries engaged in a dialogue and exchange with a view to strengthening their wildfire resilience.

In this launch event, the OECD discussed the findings of the policy dialogue carried out in Portugal, putting it into context of the broader multi-country study launched by the OECD “Taming Wildfires in the Context of Climate Change” during the 8th International Wildland Fire Conference in May 2023 in Porto, providing global assessment of wildfire risk in the context of climate change.

The event was opened by Marco Rebelo, Secretary General, Ministry of Environment and Climate Action, and Walid Oueslati, acting Head of the OECD Climate, Biodiversity and Water Division. This was followed by interventions from the Ministry of Environment and Climate Action, the OECD and the Agency for Integrated Rural Fire Management (AGIF), with a presentation and discussion on the findings of the report. The session included a Q&A segment with the audience.