UfM at COP 27 Climate Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh

Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt – 6 to 18 November 2022 – For the first time in COP’s history, the 27^th edition will host a Mediterranean Pavilion. The initiative is conceived to highlight both the urgent challenges the region is currently facing, and the innovative solutions already being developed throughout the Mediterranean, raising awareness on a region overlooked in the climate negotiations.

Located in the COP27 Blue zone, the Mediterranean Pavilion will host relevant events and working meetings and provide an exceptional opportunity to highlight these severe challenges as well as to illustrate, share, scale up and discuss the advanced initiatives applied and planned in the region.

The Mediterranean Pavilion is conceived as a space for all regional actors – public and private, scientific and academic, technical, policymaking, civil society, finance, and business – actively engaged in facing the climate crisis in and around the Mediterranean Sea. The initiative is led by the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) together with United Nations Environment Programme – Mediterranean Action Plan (UNEP-MAP) and the PRIMA Foundation, along with a coalition of the most relevant organizations dealing with climate action in the region (see list below). In an innovative approach, the Mediterranean Pavilion will have the independent network of Mediterranean Experts on Environmental and Climate Change (MedECC) as a scientific council advising its activities. MedECC gathers over 600 scientists from 35 countries and published in 2019 the first-ever scientific assessment report on the impact of environmental and climate change in the Mediterranean region.

An effective and rapid transition requires a joint effort by all the relevant actors. The Pavilion is meant to serve the region and will operate as a hub for activities and partnerships undertaken by regional public institutions, civil society organisations and private sector entities catalysing a sustainable transition through collective and scalable innovation. In this regard, the organisers are inviting organizations to host activities and participate in the Pavilion’s discussions and negotiations (information on the call published here www.mediterraneanpavilion.com).

Following a summer dominated by climate and environmental emergencies across the region, and within the context of a global climate crisis, the Mediterranean area faces challenges of its own that can lead to regional instability: extremely severe and accelerated impact – it is the planet’s second fastest warming region (warming 20% faster than the global average)– overlapping with a dangerous socio-economic asymmetry and lack of integration. But the Mediterranean is also a hub for emerging solutions – public policies and private initiatives – that can serve as a blueprint for similar efforts to be scaled up globally.