ESG Gains Traction Among Portuguese CEOs

Written by Paulo H. S. Nogueira

Published on 18/11/2025 at 14:52

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Understand the Case

The commitment to ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) is gaining traction among CEOs in Portugal. According to the KPMG CEO Outlook 2025, 77% of national leaders believe they have the resources and capacity to meet non-financial reporting requirements, aligning them with their companies’ strategic goals.

Additionally, 72% of Portuguese CEOs use artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the quality of sustainability data, identify resource efficiency opportunities, and increase energy efficiency. Almost half (48%) prioritize compliance standards and information reporting to meet investor and regulatory demands.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

Strategic Use of AI

The study highlights that 77% of CEOs turn to AI to reduce emissions and enhance energy efficiency. According to Vitor Ribeirinho, senior partner/CEO of KPMG Portugal, “We are witnessing a maturity phase of ESG practices in Portugal. Companies are consolidating data infrastructures, value metrics, and robust governance.”

Challenge of Credibility

The current challenge is to ensure credibility, consistency, and measurable impact, Ribeirinho emphasizes, suggesting that technology needs to be applied strategically and transparently.

International Context

Globally, 61% of CEOs believe they can achieve carbon neutrality targets by 2030, according to the KPMG 2025 Global CEO Outlook. This figure represents a 10% increase compared to 2024. The trend shows that climate confidence is growing, supported by long-term strategies and technological investments.

However, 59% of global leaders express ethical concerns related to AI, while 52% recognize limitations in data preparedness. Additionally, 50% cite the lack of appropriate regulation, essential factors to ensure that technology supports sustainability responsibly.

Impacts and Trends

According to the study, Portuguese companies are increasingly integrating sustainability objectives into the core of their corporate strategies. This occurs while leveraging technological solutions to accelerate the sustainable transition. The consolidation of value metrics and reliable sustainability reporting is central to this process.

Moreover, the adoption of AI enables not only efficiency but also better monitoring of environmental impacts, demonstrating that ESG has moved from being just a concept to becoming an essential strategic practice.

ESG Gains Traction Among Portuguese CEOs

Strategic Use of AI

Challenge of Credibility

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At 16 years old and without money to buy equipment, a student from the Sertão of Paraíba built his first telescope with two margarine buckets and a wall mirror, and today he brings space observations to schools and squares in the region with increasingly powerful devices.

ESG Gains Traction Among Portuguese CEOs

Strategic Use of AI

Challenge of Credibility

A giant printer called the “Ferrari” of concrete has landed in Latin America and can already build a 120-square-meter house in just 48 hours, making the traditional construction site look like something from the last century.

Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt has ceased to be a climatic phenomenon and has become a biological system that feeds on itself, with 8,000 kilometers in length, 37 million tons of algae, and scientists confirm that it is now permanent.

A British company has installed in the middle of the ocean the world’s first floating platform that generates electricity 24 hours a day from the temperature difference between the surface and the depths of the Atlantic, without relying on wind or sun.

Brazil will harvest a record crop of up to 357 million tons of grains, but it does not have the capacity to store a large part of it. The storage deficit has reached the highest level in history and is equivalent to almost the entire production of Argentina.

Engineers had to pour concrete mixed with tons of ice throughout entire nights in the Dubai desert to erect the Burj Khalifa; any carelessness could clog the pipes half a mile high.

The James Webb telescope spotted a planet 700 light-years from Earth with mornings full of sand clouds and nights with clear skies, the temperature difference between the two hemispheres reaches an impressive 170 degrees.

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In a locked room of a R$ 220 million mansion in Brazil about to be demolished, a R$ 400,000 Brancusi sculpture has just been found.

Owner of the largest pig farm on the planet, the Chinese company Muyuan Foods sent executives to Mato Grosso to study pig production in Brazil, as a step by China to get closer to the source of feed and ensure food security, although the investment has not yet been confirmed.

Archaeologists discovered in Pompeii the remains of a man who faced the eruption of Vesuvius holding a bowl on his head as a shield, a lamp to light the way, and ten bronze coins to restart life, in a find that confirms the account written by Pliny the Younger almost 2,000 years ago.

At 16 years old and without money to buy equipment, a student from the Sertão of Paraíba built his first telescope with two margarine buckets and a wall mirror, and today he brings space observations to schools and squares in the region with increasingly powerful devices.