The Mediterranean is a climate hotspot, warming approximately 20% faster than the global average, and it is among the most plastic-polluted seas worldwide. Around one third of the region’s population lives in coastal areas, where sea level is rising by 2.8 mm per year. By 2100, up to 20 million people could face permanent displacement as a result of enviromental change. These interconnected threats to people, economies and ecosystems call for urgent and coordinated action.
Against this backdrop and as preparations advance for the 2nd Scientific Mediterranean Assessment Report (MAR2) on climate and environmental change, Grammenos Mastrojeni, Senior Deputy Secretary General of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), and Prof. Magda Bou Dagher Kharrat, Principal Scientist at EFIMED and member of the MedECC network of Euro-Mediterranean climate and environmental scientists, will brief the media on the state of climate and environmental change in the region.