Contemporary societies are facing a growing public awareness and politicization of the risks associated to climate change. At this regard the energetic paradigm that has been at the basis of the historical process of large-scale industrialization and the current economic development is revealing itself, with particular urgency, unsustainable. Indeed, it as been showed that greenhouse gas emissions come mostly from energy use. Intensive fossil fuel combustion is the main responsible for high levels of emissions of anthropogenic greenhouse gases effect, witch result in global warming. In this context, some international initiatives, such as the Kyoto Protocol (1997), are trying to contain greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, a group of other factors - such as the recent trend towards an increasing and enduring rise of the prices of petroleum products, the predictable decline of crude oil reservoirs productivity, the delicate geopolitical framing of the localization of main fossil fuel producing wells, and the energetic dependency of other countries, in a global context of growing demand for energy - is contributing to European political leader's perception of the need to rapidly adopt a new common energy policy. In fact, European Union as been adopting as strategic orientation the creation of a common market of energy that may be efficient and sustainable, as a way to ensure simultaneously a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, economic competitiveness, and energy supply security. For this, European Union is promoting the diversification of energy sources, through the technological development of renewable energy and the increase of energetic efficiency.   The implementation of these measures should bring about intense and sudden changes in a development paradigm that as been known as a «carbon economy». Thus, the introduction of the concept of sustainability in energy use will carry significant changes in consumption patterns of social actors. Nevertheless, it should be noticed that only when environmental risks become object of communication, obtaining social visibility, may be considered an effective threat by the public (Goldblatt, 1996; Luhmann, 1989). An extensive analysis of Portuguese television content broadcasted between 1957 and 1995 revealed that energy, in an environmental perspective, tends to have a residual expression (Schmidt, 2003). And recently, in the context of the «oil crisis» of 2006, it as been observed that in Portuguese television news, energy is associated mainly to economic risks, instead of environmental ones (Horta, 2007).This way, it is not surprising that, as shows a recent Eurobarometer (2007), Portuguese have low levels of sensitivity towards the need of changing energy consumption patterns. In fact, Portuguese are among the Europeans that most frequently (65%) say that the first priority in energy policy should be to assure low prices for the consumer. In this context of change, the scarcity of research about social representations and practices of Portuguese consumers about energy makes difficult to understand the way the country will adapt itself to the new reality. It also makes difficult to implement political strategies of action towards the promotion of energy sustainability. This research project is meant to analyse the ways how energy is presented by mass media in the public space, and appropriated by the citizens. Studying the process of production, diffusion and reception of information and knowledge about energy, this research will contribute for an assessment of mass media participation on social construction of risks related to energy.