UfM Climate Week: Stakeholders meet to discuss the impacts of climate change on agriculture, the state of climate finance regarding water and renewables

9-11 April 2019, Barcelona. The UfM Climate Week has taken place in Barcelona gathering a wide range of actors (UfM members’ representatives, civil society, IFIs, scientific experts…). During last week, several climate-related meetings were organised at the premises of the UfM Secretariat to discuss the impacts of climate change on agriculture, the state of climate finance in the region regarding water, renewables and other specific sectors, a scientific meeting to assess on the risks of climate change and it was as well the occasion to host the third General Assembly meeting of the Mediterranean Youth Climate Network (MYCN).

The seventh meeting of the UfM Climate Change Expert Group (UfM CCEG) held on 10 April, was chaired by the UfM Co Presidency, Jordan and the European Union, and opened by European Commission DG NEAR Director General Christian Danielsson and the UfM Secretary General Nasser Kamel. It was the occasion to present the recently UfM-labelled project ClimaMed – EU Climate Action in the Southern Neighbourhood and to give an update on the scientific report Risks associated to climate and environmental changes in the Mediterranean region, carried out by the MedECC network (Mediterranean Experts on Climate and Environmental Change).

The organisation of the next UfM Ministerial Meeting on Environment and Climate Change has been a central issue. After being approved by the SOM it will potentially be held in 2020 and will give new impetus to the work of the UfM in those hot topics. The UfM Secretariat also announced its intention to organise a UfM Climate Conference this year in order to provide a networking framework aiming to create and enhance synergies among the different climate‑related actors of the region and to raise the voice of the Mediterranean, a climate change hotspot where the rise of temperature by 1.5°C compared to pre-industrial levels, the lower limit not to be surpassed as agreed through the Paris Agreement, is already being exceeded.

Several studies and reports, namely on NDCs, agriculture and climate finance, were presented and are or will soon be available at the UfMS website:

• An assessment of the impact of Climate Change on the Agricultural sector – foreseen developments and policy measures
• International Public Climate Finance in the Mediterranean
• Tracking and enhancing international private climate finance in the Southern-Mediterranean Region
• Improving access to climate finance flows to the Union for the Mediterranean – comparative analysis
• Regional facilitation – improving access and deployment of climate finance flows to the Union for the Mediterranean region
• A Regional Analysis on Nationally Determined Contributions in MENA countries
• UfM Financial Strategy for Water