20-09-2013
The new Minister for the Environment, Spatial Planning and Energy, Engineer Jorge Moreira da Silva, will pronounce next 24September 2013 at 2.30 pm at the Grand Auditorium of the Faculty, the inaugural class of the MSc in Environmental Engineering. Before assuming this task, Eng. Moreira da Silva played among others following functions: Member of Parliament (1999-2003) being here the Permanent Rapporteur for climate change issues; Secretary of State for Science and Higher Education and Secretary of State for Environment and Spatial Planning (2003-2005); Consultant of the European Investment Bank in the area of Biodiversity and Adviser to the President of the European Commission for the climate negotiations (2006-2009), Director of Energy Economics and Climate Change of the United Nations Program for Development (2009-2012), vice president of PSD- Portuguese Social Democratic Party (since 2010), President of the Think Tank “Platform for Sustainable Growth” (2011-2012). In addition to the curriculum and to the personal qualities of the speaker, we would like also to highlight a milestone in Portuguese state institutions, since it is the first time that the areas of Environment, Spatial Planning and Energy are gathered in the same ministerial oversight. It is expected that this combination will change for the better government policies in fields as important as climate change or taxation.
