Sahara ‘moving north’

A leading national expert on climate change has warned that the Iberian Peninsula might soon be facing spells of droughts that could span up to eight years, as Portugal’s climate becomes increasingly like the arid climes of Northern Africa.

Respected professor and researcher Filipe Duarte Santos this week forecast that, because of the advancing of the deserts in northern Africa, Portugal’s climate is becoming more and more like that of Morocco, Algeria or Tunisia.

His comments were made just days before Portugal was enshrouded by a mass of sticky warm air travelling upwards from south of the Canary Islands, pushing thermometers up by a good few degrees on Thursday and Friday.

Duarte Santos, a professor at the Lisbon University of Sciences and head of the National Environmental Council, was speaking at a round-table event in Évora on Wednesday, on adaptation to climate change.

The gathering was held as part of a National Meeting of Water and Sanitation Entities (ENEG 2017), which brought together hundreds of specialists on water.

The expert stressed how the changing climate could have a bearing on the country’s water sector, stressing: “Climate change can be seen in the broadening of the tropical climate zone; the desert is being pushed north. It is essential in the water sector to take this climate change into account.”

Expanding on his comments, he added that as Portugal is “an aged country, it is not easy for people to accept that this country is altering and that the climate changes”.

The leading researcher, who spearheaded one of Portugal’s foremost climate change projects – the Scenarios, Impacts and Adaptation Measures (SIAM) project – further warned that the country’s irrigation systems in the medium and long-term may not be feasible.

One suggestion he put forward is to transfer cork oaks trees to the north of the country.

