Portugal has been ranked as the fourth greenest country in the EU across six categories (waste, energy, greenhouse gases, air quality, freshwater and natural land), outranked only by Sweden (first), Norway (second) and Iceland (third).

The score appears in a research by NimbleFins, a personal finance website that conducts research and analysis on many topics. NimbleFins has looked further into which EU countries are the greenest by analysing environmental data from the European Environmental Agency, Eurostat and the WHO (World Health Organisation).

The best European countries for environmental sustainability are good at limiting landfill, recycling waste, consuming less energy, using a higher proportion of renewable energy and having clean air, plus they have a substantial proportion of forests and ample renewable freshwater.

Portugal ranks in the top half of every category with particular strength in energy and air quality categories. The country is one of the greenest in the EU due to lots of forests (59% of the land is forest or wooded), good air quality and more sympathetic energy consumption.

Portugal gets 30 percent of its energy from renewable sources, which beats the study average of 25 percent. The country also uses a low amount of non-renewable energy (1.7 tonnes of oil per capita) compared to the study average of 2.8 tonnes.

The air quality is measured by the concentration of PM2.5 (air pollution particles less than 2.5 micrometres in diameter) per cubic metre. Sweden, Iceland and Finland tied for first place in this category with a value of 5.9 micrograms of PM2.5 per cubic metre. Portugal found itself in sixth place with a value of 7.9 micrograms per cubic metre, still with a better value than the study average of 12.3.

Source: THE PORTUGAL NEWS, NIMBLEFINS