April 8

This is the name of this blog entry since I have so much to write about that no other title would make sense. This is a publication to take stock on what's been up in my life recently, and that I have been postponing writing just because. In fact, I should be postponing again today as I got an abscess removed yesterday on my left arm that got me on sick leave for the week but hey - you can always find excuses not to do stuff.

I haven't written yet about my trip to Ivory Coast, and thus I think I'll start with that. It was on the last week of January to visit irmão Nick in Abidjan, and my first time in Africa. I gotta say, first of all, I was really pop-eyed by the level of colonization of this country. For starters: what the fuck is *the* ivory coast? What kind of independent country calls itself the name the colonizer gave them because it saw them as no more than a place to steal ivory from the locals and to make money out of it? Burkina Faso, up north and the country of Thomas Sankara - the leftist, feminist leader barbarously killed because he wouldn't bend to the French and the Americans - changed their name from Haute Volta to "Land of Incorruptible People" after independence. But I mean, obviously, the locals know better how they want to be called so this is just my (very limited) understanding.

In Ivory Coast, the independentist leader and first president took the notion of representing to the next level. Do you know how rappers go like "yeah this is Queen's motherfucker" or "I'm from Compton, California"? Anti-communist Félix Houphouët-Boigny, who following Wikipedia is a "suspect" of having played a role in the coup that took down Sankara right across the border, was born in Yamoussoukro and was like "everybody should think my hometown is as dope as I think it is". That's why, even today, almost 30 years since his death, every national and international organisation may be in Abidjan but "Yakro" - as the locals call it - is still the capital, with its slightly-bigger-than-the-Vatican cathedral.

We were in Yakro on the day Ivory Coast played Egypt for the quarters of CAN, a competition that taught me two things about 1) the mentality of, at least, the Ivorians in general and 2) football in Africa. First, we watched it together with locals on this terrace, everybody having fun and was passionate about the match, calling us "les blancs"... And then, the match goes to penalties, everybody is stressed, then "we" unfortunately lose and they stay 5 seconds (if that many) sad-ish only to then be like "whatever, life goes on". In Portugal, people would be minimum the rest of the day upset and sad and depressed.

The second thing I learned was the role that, indeed, football plays in being more than just a game. I never liked this mentality back in Europe because, in the end, if football is not just a game nowadays it's because it became all about the money. However, seeing Nick's neighbourhood celebrating in the streets, with fireworks in the skies, "only" because Burkina Faso qualified for the semis was staggering really. In Portugal, we would never, ever, celebrate Spain qualifying for anything. It really is more than just a game.

There's a lot I can talk about from the trip, however, I'll limit this first part of the story to when I got a positive test for malaria. I say it like that because I did a second one two days later and then another back in Lisbon and both were negative, however, I had the symptoms while in Yakro: nausea, shivers, hot-and-colds, a bit of a fever, walking in the street and start puking, not being able to sleep unless with my belly turning up and, overall, just feeling like I'd rather die. Luckily I had good insurance (one time for IATI) and Nick was there being a true homie. About this, in particular, we had quite a friction some days later when we went to a College of Europe (CoE) alumni meeting at... the Belgian Embassy to the Ivory Coast, in Abidjan. The Ambassador is a former CoE alumnus from 20 years ago and invited us and others in town to have this meeting at his place, which was yet another first experience for me. And it was great because I took it as it was: an informal meeting between people that studied at the same place. I treated the Ambassador as "vous" because, and obviously, he's an Ambassador and we are at his place, but I'm neither Belgian nor Ivorian: therefore, I'm there to meet a CoE alumnus, not an ambassador. I understand, however, that this isn't everyone's opinion and that the diplomatic world relies on protocol and untold rules. This is why we had an argument over that, but in the end, I think that I at least, learned from it. And I guess it's different when you see somewhere as your workplace instead of your holiday place as I did.

I then had huge stress about needing to have a negative covid-19 PCR test to return home - likely because they are afraid the West will unfairly close borders again with an African country that is honest about its numbers -, first because it took ages to arrive, then because it was positive, in the meantime my insurance put me in a hotel where I met this very nice receptionist and we still had time to go for a date, and then, at last, I managed to return to Portugal already in February. Then, I took the CAST exam in the middle of the month - the competency-based exam you need to join the EU institutions with a contract and I passed, which is something I'll come up to in a bit. This is just to say that, in the meantime, I moved to Brussels to work as intérimaire (for now) at DG Energy, being really at the center of the European energy policy - which is at the center of the EU's foreign policy overall, given the barbaric and criminal invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

Now that I'm back living in Brussels, a place I already knew very well from my Erasmus, it feels like home really. Still trying to solve some things, both here and back in Portugal, but overall it's going pretty great. I took a CAST exam again almost three weeks ago, for another competence, which I passed again and this is the first thing I wanna share: following an already-visible trend on my blog, I tend to refer to Kendrick's song often and on FAITH. he talks about how he's afraid he will lose his creativity, which is his breadwinning. I think I can relate to it in the sense that, sometimes, and given my path at the CoE, and now my career at the institutions, all of these evaluations that I have been nailing - somehow I feel like one day I may wake up and just not know these things anymore, for some reason (amnesia, whatever). This is clearly a very first-world problem, but it's thoughts I sometimes have that makes me really value more and more what I have.

Also, if being in Brussels as an engineering student had already triggered me to be politically stimulated, now that I am working in policy it definitely does it even more. Having become a climate activist for the past months (although I often do not like to call myself that way as my actions are not as "hands-on" as, say, Greta Thunberg or Xiye Bastida), there are things that I currently reflect on more, and especially for being close to really interesting and awesome people that think alike. And it is very hypocritical, for example, how we have been spending almost a decade arguing we have "no space" for war refugees and now, suddenly we do for Ukrainians. We have job offers specifically for Ukrainians. And I don't even want to consider the possibility of being misinterpreted but, in case it happens, my point is that, and clearly, we have space, work possibilities, everything for every human being in the world. What we didn't have before was empathy, and it would be good if we critically look at our leaders now. It's not right to blatantly say "now they look like us so we'll help us". First, it's borderline eugenia. Second, even in the parallel dimension of psychopathy where that's a valid argument, I personally even look more Syrian than Ukrainian. So no, refugees welcome, no human being is illegal, war must end everywhere and Slava Ukraina.

Finally, just a reflection I have been having for a while but that I never put into words on this blog: as late-stage capitalism evolves, we are reaching a period in a society where we become even more and more unequal, and even more and more having a big chunk of the population serving a small portion of it. I'm talking about the growth of Uber (Eats) jobs, where literally these people work in very shitty conditions and their job is to satisfy the whims of some of us. But this is also visible on a bigger scale, for example how I see most of my former engineering colleagues graduating and then going to work in IT. I am, naturally, not talking about those who did Informatics, but instead Chemical, Physics, Biomedical, Mechanical engineers that see the market as forcing them to follow the path that the market always does: the one that maximises wealth for those who control the means of production. I'll write more and better about this in the future, I hope.

Be safe,

Portuguese energy dependence in a European context

Context

Despite being the fourth EU country that decreased its energy imports dependency the most since 2000, Portugal still imported almost 74% of its energy mix by 2019, above the EU average of 60.5% (that has, on the other hand, increased since the start of the century). By the end of the past decade, around 70% of the Portuguese energy mix relied on oil, gas, and coal (the latter having been phased out by the end of 2021).

The Russian invasion of Ukraine puts into question the security of energy supply to the European Union (EU). Russia is the historically biggest supplier of natural gas to Europe – in late January and early February, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) coming mostly from the US represented the biggest share of the energy mix, with Norwegian gas coming in second. In fact, if Russia halted all of its gas production, there would not be enough in the world to match the European demand. In addition, the possibility of a long-lasting war could severely hamper the gas flow from East to West that transits through Ukrainian territory. Portugal is one of the Member States impacted the least by a possible interruption of Russian gas to the EU. While indirectly affected by an eventual rise of the price of gas in case of a disruption, Portugal has a relatively low share of Russian gas in its energy mix in 2021 – 10.2%, while more than 40% EU-wide came from Russia in 2019 –, and the last time it imported from Russia at all was last October. Natural gas reaches Portugal via two main routes: by land, through Spain, or by boat, receiving American and Nigerian LNG at the terminal located in Sines (160km south of Lisbon).

Portugal is not as exposed to Russian natural gas as the other Member States for two main reasons; the first is that it is the furthest country from Russia on mainland EU. The second is the lack of electricity interconnectivity between the Iberian Peninsula and the rest of the Union. Already back in 2014, the conclusions adopted by the European Council (EUCO) 169/14 stated the urgency in achieving a “minimum target of 10% of existing electricity interconnections”, setting the timeline for 2020 “for the Member States which have not yet attained a minimum level of integration in the internal energy market, which are (…) Portugal and Spain”. Regarding electricity alone (one of the components of the total energy consumption, the other two being heating and transport), more than 50% comes from low-carbon sources – highlighting the lower dependence on foreign gas for the functioning of the country.

The Madrid Declaration from 2015 meant an increase in ambition to push for a 15% interconnection level by 2030 and, at the 2018 II Energy Interconnections Links Summit (Madrid 2015 was the first), the 10% by 2020 and 15% by 2030 targets were again recalled. However, four years later, little progress has been made to meet them.

Big expectations, small implementations

As of 2022, all of the planned interconnection projects are yet to become completed. The Biscay Bay, also known as Biscay Gulf, is predicted to be commissioned only by September 2027, and the Pyrenean crossing lines 1 and 2 will not become operational until 2029 and 2030, respectively. Regarding the PT-ES interconnection, which route goes from Beariz (ES) to Fontefría (ES) to Ponte de Lima (PT) to Vila Nova de Famalicão (PT), the commissioning date is set to December 2023. This means that the 2020 target ended up not being reached.

Last November, Portugal, Spain, and France signed a declaration highlighting the role of energy interconnections amid the current global price hike, renewing their commitment to completing the Biscay Gulf project to double the current interconnectivity between France and the Peninsula. Already in June, Minister of the Environment João Matos Fernandes referred to the importance of allowing renewable, cheaper energy flowing from Portugal to the rest of the continent – and thus contribute to the EU’s energy security. The minister considered that the PT-ES line – initially predicted to become operational by 2015, and then postponed to 2017 – was finally on the right path again, following what he described as Spain being uncertain regarding the location of the corridor. He also reiterated that Portugal remains interested in a subaquatic connection with Morocco to transport electricity, a project delayed since its proposal in 2016 – following Matos Fernandes, also due to hesitancies from the other party.

In July of 2020, the Portuguese National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) for 2030 was approved. It highlights, among other aspects, the evolution of electricity interconnections with Spain, currently consisting of six 400 kV lines and three 220 kV lines. It mentions the goal of reaching 10% by 2020 and 15% by 2030, stating that while Portugal is doing its share to meet the targets the same is not happening on the other side of the Peninsula – described as an “electric island” by the plan. Portuguese MEP Maria da Graça Carvalho wrote recently an opinion piece for Diário de Notícias, where she considers the Pyrenean line as extremely important for the maintenance of natural gas as a “transition fuel”. She attributes its stalling to the French “lack of political will”, an opinion shared by Secretary of State for Energy João Galamba – that considers that France prioritizes its nuclear sector above all.

Current state of affairs

António Costa Silva, former president of oil company Partex, has another “culprit”: speaking to online media Observador, he believes Germany put its own energy interests ahead of the Union’s by building Nord Stream II, instead of promoting a more integrated European energy market – all the way to Lisbon and Sines.

For Spain, the idea of the PT-ES lines is to be able to double its electricity exports to Portugal. Going through the worst drought since 2005, Portugal has been producing less hydroelectric energy due to the unusually lower average water level in dams – with four of them having already been limited at the start of the month not to produce electricity. From 2020 to 2021, Portuguese electricity imports from Spain increased by 40%, while exports decreased by 15% - the final balance, around 4.75 GWh and tripling the level of 2020, meant around 10% of electricity consumption in the country. After some controversy that closing the two remaining coal plants in 2021 (that represented nearly 10% of all electricity production and made Portugal the fourth Member State to stop using coal) would increase coal-produced electricity imports from Spain, the government has ensured that this is not the case and that solar energy production is compensating for coal. Furthermore, data shows that these plants already lacked price competitiveness in 2020, which is the number one factor that determines a higher or lower level of imports (and not a decrease on the supply side). In that same year, Portugal surpassed its 31% target for the share of renewables in primary energy consumption (34.1%), the fifth-highest value among the Member States. By October 2021, 65.2% of all electricity produced in Portugal came from renewable sources and only 1.56% from coal.

Two weeks ago, the Portuguese Foreign Affairs Minister was interviewed by Expresso. Augusto Santos Silva focused on how Portugal can be a key player in reducing the European overdependence on Russian gas, in particular the role of the aforementioned Sines terminal – that is being used at full capacity to receive LNG from the US. Rui Cartaxo, former president of the Portuguese energy grid (REN), considers the suspension of Nord Stream II by Chancellor Olaf Scholz as a win not only to America but also to countries like Qatar that can benefit from the inevitable rise in gas prices. Santos Silva also mentions how other European leaders are becoming more aware of the very important part gas interconnections can play in bringing green gases (among them, hydrogen) from Portugal and Spain to the rest of Europe – and denoting confidence that France is (again) on-board. He believes the current energy prices crisis shows how crucial it is for the Iberian Peninsula to be integrated, and in particular for Portugal to export with not only green hydrogen but also its extremely high output of solar, wind, and hydroelectric energy.