Energy and Digitalisation, the Transition Choices

Nº158 MAY 2026

Portugal and the world are entangled in apparently unsolvable problems. There is no technology without energy, no progress without technology. Old-fashioned bureaucracies are stifling innovation and international institutions are wasting away in the face of corporate power. We want to decarbonise without reducing consumption; we want peace, but we fuel conflicts. Digital transformation and the energy transition sustain life and the current dilemmas.

This essay shows how the future demands a difficult balance from an energy standpoint (between sustainability at low prices and supplying power without changing landscapes), a digital standpoint (between innovation, rights and privacy) and a political standpoint (between the roles of the State, the markets and of civil society). However, it argues that this is a historic opportunity for the country, which has unparalleled renewable resources, and challenges each citizen to get past the political rhetoric and take part in the choices to be made in the face of these fast-paced changes.