COP25 – The UfM and Cyprus analyse the risks of climate and environmental change in the Mediterranean region and the Middle East
Cyprus lies at the meeting point of the Mediterranean, the Middle East and North Africa, areas where climate change is expected to take a heavy toll in the coming decades
12 December 2019, Madrid. The Mediterranean region is getting warmer and drier at a faster rate than the global average. In the margins of the UN Conference COP25 in Madrid, the UfM co-organised a side-event with the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment of Cyprus to gather scientists and decisionmakers to evaluate the current state and risks related to climate and environmental change.
Quote from Grammenos Mastrojeni, Deputy Secretary General, Union for the Mediterranean: “the historical asymmetries that are still root causes for surviving conflicts and injustice in the Mediterranean region, can be solved with the exact same measures that we need to face climate change. If policy integrates climate, the only rational solution is a fair sustainable co-development, and it means peace.”
An open and independent international network of Mediterranean Experts on Climate and environmental Change (MedECC) was launched in 2005 to gather, update and consolidate the best scientific knowledge on these issues and render it accessible to policy-makers and key stakeholders. The ground-breaking findings of this first-ever scientific report on climate change in the Mediterranean were presented in October at the IV UfM Regional Forum.
During the event, the Cyprus Climate Change Initiative also presented the development of a Regional Action Plan to address the specific needs and challenges countries are facing in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East region, to address and ameliorate the impact of climate change and advance mitigation actions in accordance with the Paris Agreement.
