Marseille hosts the Forum of the Mediterranean civil society for climate change, “MEDCOP21”

Marseille, 4-5 June 2015. A high-level delegation from the UfM consisting of Secretary General Fathallah Sijilmassi and Deputy Secretary General Teresa Ribeiro attended MEDCOP21 (Forum of the Mediterranean civil society for climate change) in Marseille on 4-5 June 2015.

MEDCOP21 hosted representatives of governments and their decentralised agencies, as well as 500 representatives of civil society stakeholders from all Mediterranean countries with the aim of building a common positive Mediterranean agenda with concrete proposals to fight climate change.

MEDCOP21 was held in preparation for the 21^st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change which will take place in Paris from 30 November to 11 December 2015 (COP21/CMP11). The following Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP22) will be held in Morocco in 2016.

The Mediterranean has special importance in tackling this world challenge. Global warming has a considerable impact on both natural resources and human activities, affecting large areas of the Mediterranean economy including agriculture, tourism, industry and energy production. The Mediterranean region can also bring new opportunities when dealing with this global challenge through a proactive approach and initiatives developed by stakeholders from northern, southern and eastern Mediterranean countries.

Following the UfM Ministerial Conference (Athens, 13 May 2014) that gathered Ministers in charge of environment and climate change in the 43 countries of the Union for the Mediterranean, MEDCOP21 offers a new opportunity to highlight complementarities between existing initiatives and identify concrete actions to address climate change in the Mediterranean region.

Climate change is a priority area of the UfM agenda and the General Secretariat undertakes multiple regional initiatives in this field.