In a move that has been greeted with disbelief in the automobile sector and discredited by environmentalists, the government is looking to reduce the speed limit by two kilometres an hour to a revised figure of 118km/h in its fight to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

In an unexpected move, the government wants to bring down the speed limit and keep taxis out of cities for a day a week.

These two proposals can be found in the National Programme of Climate Change (PNAC) which has been fashioned with the sole objective of reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

The government says that should the measures proposed be successful in their implementation, tangible effects will visible by as early as 2010.

Reducing the speed limit to 118km/h will allow the government to come within 59 percent of achieving targets set for 2010.

The additional measure of keeping taxis out of cities for one day a week will see CO2 emissions fall by 3,900 tonnes, while replacing them with gas-powered vehicles will see a drop of an additional 200 tonnes.

Both these measures have however since been contested by taxi associations as being impractical.

Portugal’s most prominent environmental group Quercus says these measures are wholly inadequate and says the automobile sector should be ‘penalised’ much more than what is being proposed as cars are by some margin the biggest polluters in Portugal.