On 28 February 2022, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its latest report, the Working Group II contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). For the first time, this IPCC report includes a specific contribution on the Mediterranean, a region known to be a climate change hotspot, as highlighted in recent Plan Bleu andMedECC publications: the 2020 report on the State of the Environment and Development in the Mediterranean (SoED), and the 1st Mediterranean Assessment Report (MAR1). (MAR1). The IPCC AR6 includes the “Cross-Chapter Paper 4: Mediterranean Region”, which has been co-led by Ms. Elham Ali and Mr. Wolfgang Cramer, who is also one of the coordinators of MedECC.
Its conclusions align with the findings of the SoED and MAR1, showing that “Climate change strongly interacts with other environmental problems in the Mediterranean Basin, resulting from urbanisation, land use change, overfishing, pollution, biodiversity loss and degradation of land and marine ecosystems”, and that “Identified regional key risks include increased water scarcity (notably in the South and East) and droughts (in the North), coastal risks due to flooding, erosion and saltwater intrusions, wildfire, terrestrial and marine ecosystem losses, as well as risks to food production and security, human health, well-being and the cultural heritage.” We invite you to discover the full paper on pages 3 435-3484 of the AR6.
