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Union for the Mediterranean – UfMUnion for the Mediterranean – UfMUnion for the Mediterranean – UfMUnion for the Mediterranean – UfM     Mediterranean Day
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      The Union for the Mediterranean is an intergovernmental institution bringing together the European Union Member States and 16 countries from the Southern and Eastern shores of the Mediterranean to promote dialogue and cooperation.

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      UfM Annual Report 2022 Regional Integration
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      The UfM seeks to enhance regional cooperation, dialogue and the implementation of concrete projects and initiatives with tangible impact on our citizens to address three strategic objectives: human development, stability and integration.

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      23 July 2023 – Diário de Notícias – União para o Mediterrâneo, 15 anos de cooperação regional
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      21 July 2023 – Al Masry al Youm – جوزيب بوريل وأيمن الصفدى وناصر كامل يكتبون: 15 عامًا من التعاون الإقليمى
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      17 July 2023 – The Jordan Times – Union for the Mediterranean, 15 years of regional cooperation
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First Scientific Report on Climate and Environmental Change in the Mediterranean

The Mediterranean region warms 20% faster than the rest of the world. With current policies, temperatures are expected to increase 2.2 ºC by 2040. These are some of the alarming conclusions of the ground-breaking findings of the first-ever scientific report on climate and environmental change in the Mediterranean area. 

Download the complete 1st Mediterranean Assessment Report on Climate and Environmental Change in the Mediterranean Basin (2020 version) available in English, and the Summary for Policymakers available in English, French, Arabic, Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Greek, Turkish and German

Recent accelerated climate change has exacerbated existing environmental problems in the Mediterranean Basin that are caused by the combination of changes in land use, increasing pollution and declining biodiversity. In most impact domains (such as water, ecosystems, food, health and security), current change and future scenarios consistently point to significant and increasing risks during the coming decades.

Policies for the sustainable development of Mediterranean countries are urgently needed to mitigate these risks and consider adaptation options, but policy-makers lacked adequate information — particularly for the most vulnerable southern Mediterranean societies, where fewer systematic observations schemes and impact models are based.

As a result, the network of Mediterranean Experts on Climate and Environmental Change (MedECC) was created in 2015 as an open and independent regional scientific expert network, supported by the UfM and the UN environment. 190 scientists from 25 countries, all contributing in individual capacity and without financial compensation, have been developing reports with the aim to facilitate more effective policy responses to climate change.

After preliminary conclusions published in 2019, the second phase of the assessment resulted in the publication of the complete Mediterranean Assessment Report on ‎Climate and Environmental ‎Changes and its Summary for ‎Policy-Makers. The main conclusions were presented during the 2nd UfM Ministerial on Environment and climate actions to take place on the 4th of October 2021 in Cairo.

Among its main conclusions, the report shows that the Mediterranean basin warms 20% faster than the global average, and that the region is one of the main climate change hotspots in the world, where 250 million people are projected to be considered “water poor” within 20 years. With current policies, temperatures are expected to increase by 2.2ºC (compared to pre-industrial level) by 2040. 

In March 2022, we published a series of 5 new infographics to present and highlight specific risks associated with climate and environmental change in the Mediterranean Basin and based on data of the MAR1 published in November 2020.

Policy Framework

 

The UfM follows the mandate of the 42 UfM Member States, which gather in the Ministerial Meetings to address strategic priorities in the region. In 2014, UfM Ministers in charge of environment and climate change gathered in Athens on the occasion of the first UfM Ministerial Meeting on Environment and Climate Change.

As a result, the network of Mediterranean Experts on Climate and Environmental Change (MedECC) was created in 2015 as an open and independent international scientific expert network acting as a mechanism for decision-makers and the general public on the basis of available scientific information and on-going research. The creation of this network is supported by key regional institutions such as UN Environment/MAP through the Regional Framework for Climate Change Adaptation in the Mediterranean, and the Union for the Mediterranean through its Expert Group on Climate Change (UfM CCEG). MedECC gathers more than 600 scientists from 35 countries. Its Secretariat is hosted by Plan Bleu in Marseille.

In December 2019 the preliminary results of MedECC’s assessment on the risks associated to climate and environmental changes in the Mediterranean were published. Taking stock of the conclusions, the UfM Ministers of Foreign Affairs acknowledged the urgent need to address the impact of climate change in the Mediterranean region and shift towards sustainable consumption and production patterns for a green and low emission economy.

“No single nation, no single community, in our region has enough resources to cope with the pace of climate change on its own. Undeniably, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, our common efforts in the next decade have to focus on facing this urgent issue that goes way beyond climate change and implies reconsidering our approach to the region’s limited resources”, UfM Secretary General Nasser Kamel underlined at the UfM Regional Forum on 10 October 2019, when main conclusions of the report were presented.

In October 2021, Ministers from the 42 Member countries of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) gathered in Cairo at the 2nd UfM Ministerial Conference on Environment and Climate Action to reiterate the urgency and discuss ways to steer the action towards a clean, competitive, resilient and inclusive Mediterranean for the health and well-being of all citizens in the region.

The Summary for Policymakers was recognised as “an important contribution of the scientific community to future climate and environmental actions in the Mediterranean region » in the declaration of the the 2nd UfM Ministerial Conference on Environment and Climate Action (4 October 2021, Cairo, Egypt) by the 42 UfM ministers, and was endorsed but the Contracting Parties during the 22nd meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention COP22 (December 2021, Antalya, Türkiye).

With the support of the UfM, the MedECC received on December 9, 2021 in Lisbon (Portugal) the North-South Prize 2020 of the Council of Europe for “its efforts to address climate change and biodiversity conservation in the Mediterranean and in particular by drafting the first-ever scientific assessment on climate and environmental changes impacts in the Mediterranean Basin”

Media

Press contact

+34 935 214 137
         +34 691 519 634
media@ufmsecretariat.c.wetopi.com

Download the UfM press kit:
AR  //  EN  //  ES  //  FR

Download the Press summary of the Climate report: key highlights 
AR  //  EN  //  FR  // ES
Download the Union for the Mediterranean press kit:
AR  //  EN  //  ES  //  FR
Download the infographic :
AR  //  EN  //  ES  //  FR //  IT //  GR
Download Social Media Infographics [.zip] (EN // FR // AR)

10.10.2019. El País: “El Mediterráneo, zona cero de la crisis climática: se calienta más deprisa que el resto del planeta”

10.10.2019. Publico Portugal: “É necessária uma ação urgente no Mediterrâneo”

10.10.2019. Handelsblatt: Klimastudie zum Mittelmeer: ‘Wir müssen handeln!’

11.10.2019. Al Masry Al youm: تقرير علمى يحذر: آثار تغير المناخ في منطقة البحر المتوسط أعلى من المعدل العالمي

14.10.2019. National Geographic: El Mediterráneo aumentará un metro su nivel del mar y hasta cinco grados su temperatura para 2100

10.10.2019. La Sexta: Regional Forum Climate Report

30.09.2019. Youm7: “The Mediterranean region is most affected with climate change”

25.11.2020. El Watan: Le gouvernement face au stress hydrique : La région restera, selon un nouveau rapport, affectée par le manque de précipitations

03.11.2020. Le Journal CNRS: Mistrals, un souffle pour la recherche en Méditerrannée

12.09.2020. El Pais: Un rayo de esperanza

10.11. 2021. National Geographic Espana: 10 fenómenos climáticos que están cambiando el mundo y que ya se ven en España

29.09.2021. Al Arham فيضانات وحرائق وارتفاع درجات الحرارة .. الخطر يقترب من العالـم 

9.09.2021. La Provence: Congrès mondial de la nature à Marseille : pour sauver la Grande bleue, “il faut agir sans plus attendre »

7.07.2021. Regió 7: Els beneficis dels boscos mediterranis estan en perill si la temperatura global puja més de 2 graus, segons la CTFC

28.11.2022. RTV2, Sociedade Civil: “Ep. 180: Mediterrâneo »

16.11.2022. Cyprus Time: Αισιόδοξη η Κύπρος λέει ο Καδής. Ενεργώντας συλλογικά θα αντιμετωπιστούν οι προκλήσεις της κλιματικής κρίσης.

09.11.2022. Al Bawaba: Mediterranean: Combating climate change.

15.11.2022. El Periódico: El Mediterráneo: una historia inédita sobre clima, amenazas y esperanzas. 

19.10.2022. Le Point: MedECC, un GIEC pour la Méditerranée

28.07.2022. Europe 1, Une grande vague de chaleur marine fragilise la méditerranée

12.03.2022. L’Indipendente – Mediterraneo, hotspot di biodiversità e cambiamento climatico

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Who we are

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  • Who we are
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