BRUSSELS — The Portuguese government will soon unveil measures to cut the country’s dependence on fossil fuels by half over the next decade, a top official told POLITICO.

Portugal already ranks among Europe’s green energy leaders, generating 80 percent of its power from renewable sources. But oil and gas still account for more than 60 percent of total energy use — including fuels used in transport, industry and heating as well as electricity.

“We have the objective to decrease the dependence on fossil fuels to half of what we have now” over the next “eight to 10 years,” Maria da Graça Carvalho, the country’s environment and energy minister, said in an interview.

While this target has been in the works for a while, the center-right government has accelerated its planning due to the Iran conflict, which has threatened the global supply of fossil fuels and driven up prices.

“We were planning it, but Iran gave us the urgency of doing it,” she said.

Lisbon’s proposal will be presented in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, the European Commission intends to unveil a bloc-wide electrification target, similarly designed to cut fossil fuel reliance, in June.

Graça Carvalho welcomed the EU executive’s plans but urged Brussels not to ignore the green fuels needed to fully decarbonize parts of industry or the transport sector.

“We want to invest a lot in renewable molecules — biodiesel, hydrogen, biomethane, and also sustainable aviation fuels,” she said. That’s why Portugal is going ahead with a fossil fuel reduction target instead of an electrification goal, she added.

Plus, she said, “we have decided on a target that, because of this crisis, is better understood by society — to get rid of this dependency.”

Few EU countries have specific targets in place to reduce oil and gas use, with most focusing on plans to increase renewable power and phase out coal — though France this year similarly presented goals to halve the share of fossil fuels in its final energy mix by 2035.

The Portuguese government is also imposing a windfall tax on energy companies profiting from the fuel price surge resulting from the Iran conflict, Graça Carvalho confirmed.

Portugal was among the countries that asked the Commission last month to develop such a levy to apply across the bloc, but Brussels has left the decision of whether to impose windfall taxes to individual EU governments.

While Lisbon is pushing ahead with a national levy, the government would still prefer an EU-level tax, the minister said.

“These kinds of taxes should be done at a European level in order to keep the integrity of the internal market … to keep a level playing field among the member states,” she added.