 Dear delegates, welcome to Lisbon, welcome to Portugal. As Portuguese minister on environment special planning and energy, it is for me a great honor to attend the opening of this IWA World Water Congress and exhibition in Lisbon. My first words need to be addressed to those who have worked hard during the last years to make this day happen. In this context, I would like to congratulate EPAL, the Lisbon Water Utility, and Canaia, the Portuguese Commission for IWA, for having firmly believed in this idea. A warm word must also be addressed for IWA for having chosen Lisbon to this event. This is indeed a very important week for Portugal, but also at the global level. In New York, the UN Secretary General is organizing a high-level dialogue, which I'm glad to attend, to foster a climate change deal to be agreed by 2015 in Paris. At the same time, here in Lisbon, we are discussing at this very important forum of IWA the challenges ahead of us on water resources and water services, focused on water access, resilience, efficiency, innovation, and sustainability. This path through innovation, sustainability, and new solutions is also the path Portugal is trying to pursue. In this context, after a critical period of external assistance, which had come to a successful end in last May, Portugal is now entering a new stage from the bailout process towards a sustainable development and growth strategy. 2014 serves as a starting point for the reorientation of the Portuguese development model towards greater economic, financial, and environmental sustainability, aiming to comply with three major objectives by 2020. First, to position Portugal as a global benchmark for green growth. Second, to promote low-carbon economy, highly efficient in resource use. And third, to produce more wealth and jobs by investing in the sustainability of industries and territories. Portugal gathers relevant resources on renewable energy, biodiversity, and water, with high quality of energy, water, transportation, and ICT infrastructure, and outstanding professional companies and institutions on environment and energy. We do believe that time has come to place Portugal at the vanguard of green growth, and in this period, green growth has emerged in Portugal as one of the national greatest priorities. We firmly believe that green growth is the right tool to place at once the most relevant, to face at once the most relevant and demanding global challenges on water, energy, biodiversity, and climate change, to promote sustainable use of resources through a circular economy and no longer through a linear economy too much dependent on intensive use of resources and also to foster economy competitiveness. According to this spirit and ambition, Portugal has just launched, actually last Monday, what we call a compromise for green growth. This is a strategic document that results from a comprehensive and open divide among the Portuguese society that intends to set a long-term vision for Portugal in this area, guaranteeing stability and predictability to address those challenges. This commitment established 13 targets for 2020 and 2030, as well as identified 83 key initiatives in 10 sectors and six catalyzers that we believe will help us to achieve the above mentioned goals. This compromise for green growth aims to contribute to a more resilient, competitive and sustainable country, promoting the adoption of an integrated and cross-sexual view of the areas and industries with greatest green growth potential, fostering the ability to link research innovation and economy and the ability to put the citizen at the center of our concerns. Let me outline seven vital commitments that we set at this innovative compromise for green growth. First, to increase our green growth added value by an annual rate of 5% reaching around 5 billion euros by 2030. Second, to foster green jobs by an annual rate of 4%, doubling in 2030 our current green jobs. Third, to increase research productivity by 30% by 2030. Fourth, to increase energy efficiency reaching a 30% target by 2030. Fifth, to increase water efficiency reducing and build and water losses on supplied water from current rate of 35% to 25% by 2020 and 20% by 2030. Six, to reduce greenhouse gases emissions by 30% to 40% by 2030 compared to the level reached in 2005. And finally, to increase renewable energy share from 27% to 31% by 2020 and 40% by 2030. I would like to recall you that in the first semester of this year we achieved 70% renewable energy on electricity in Portugal. Taking in consideration the relevant role water places when dealing with green growth, six initiatives were specifically identified in the water sector under this compromise on green growth. Ladies and gentlemen, as many of you know, Portugal has made in the last two decades enormous investments, very significant investments on the water sector, particularly on water supply, wastewater infrastructures. As a result of such investments, a relevant improvement on water supply and sanitation conditions was achieved. In 2013, 95% of the population was served by drinking water supply services compared to just 82% in 93, with 98% of top-type water monitored and in compliance with European standards. Concerning access to sanitation services, there was a great increase in services coverage from 61% in 93 to 81% in 2013 and on the population connected to wastewater treatment plants from 31% in 93 to 71% in 2013. This performance has had direct impacts not only on environment quality, where we saw, for example, an improvement on freshwater resources quality as well as on bathing waters, but also on public else where we witnessed in the last two decades a relevant evolution in terms of control of waterborne communicable diseases. Twenty years after this infrastructure cycle, we are now confronted with new challenges which requires from us a paradigm shift on water supply and wastewater management. Portugal faces today a number of operational, environmental, financial challenges in this sector which need to be addressed in order to guarantee that these essential public services continue to be available with quality and feasibility as well as in an universal way to all the people. And these challenges are the main drivers for the major reform of the Portuguese water sector that we are starting to operate in Portugal. During the following days, your work in this Congress will be developed under the theme shaping our water future. Well, in Portugal, we are also at this right moment in visiting an important group of initiatives that I do believe will also contribute in a decisive manner to reshaping the Portuguese water future and guarantee goods and sustainable conditions for future generations. In fact, the government will announce this water reform in the next couple days. Dear delegates, these challenges are not only posed to the Portuguese government. They are also shared by all nations and by all the sectors of the society. During the last 15 years, our international efforts were devoted to the accomplishment of the Millennium Development Goals where specific water and sanitation targets were established. One year from the end of this exercise, relevant improvements were achieved, namely in terms of water supply, with a drinking water supply target being met by 2010. The same performance was not possible in terms of sanitation. And our efforts must be challenged to this area. But new trends and new concerns have emerged. Water resources faces today, relevant challenges, for example, for instance, climate change, urbanization pressures, population growth. And these new trends, these new reality, demands from the international community an innovative approach to water and sanitation after 2015. We are now entering a decisive stage at the international level. We will define a post-2015 development agenda and establishment of sustainable development goals in the framework of United Nations. Portugal has been arguing since the beginning of this discussion in favor of a standalone water and sanitation goal. And we do believe a lot of work still needs to be done in terms not only of quantity, but also of quality of access, as well as in terms of access to water and sanitation services. A new human rights-based approach needs to be integrated in this new post-2015 agenda and the design of the sustainable development goals in the near future. Efficiency must also be a dimension to be reflected in these new future targets. Dear delegates, the challenges ahead of us are of great magnitude. We can't continue the exploitation of natural research at a rate that is severely impacting the environment, the citizens' daily lives, and our global economy. We can't forget resources are the major input of any economy and are fundamental for human well-being. We also seem to forget that many of them are not rentable. So I am firmly convinced it is not a matter of when or how to promote growth, competitiveness, and job creation in a research-efficient way. It is about acting now, because this is the wisest economy model that any country, any society, can adopt. Portugal is in this path of green growth, and I firmly believe that this will lead to very positive improvements in our society. I wish you all a fruitful and productive Congress, and we look for your conclusions to help us policy makers to design efficient public policies that will address important challenges we are facing. Thank you very much. Thank you so much, Your Excellency. Where's the wisdom that we hope will inspire change?