ClimVar project

Plan Bleu is a partner of the project « Integration of climate variability and change into national strategies for the implementation of the ICZM Protocol in the Mediterranean » implemented by the United Nations Environment Programme.

The overall project goal is to promote the use of ICZM in the participating countries as an effective tool to deal with the impacts of climate variability and change in coastal zones by mainstreaming them into the ICZM process. Specific objectives of the project are:

• To strengthen knowledge on regional climate variability and change and their impacts and define their specific characteristics in the Mediterranean region;
• To strengthen partnerships, improve capacity building and establish mechanisms for exchange of data and information for integration of climate variability and change into concrete ICZM policies, plans and programmes.

First of all, Plan Bleu is in charge of the organization of a national workshop in each participating countries in order to identify existing monitoring programs related to climate variability and change, to identify relevant environmental data and explore the possibilities of data sharing in order to develop a regional information sharing platform. The UNEP GRID Geneva will provide technical support for this activity.

Secondly, Plan Bleu participates in the activity related to the assessment of environmental and socio -economic impacts of climate change in two vulnerable sites (the County of Sibenik -Knin in Croatia and islands Kerkennah in Tunisia) in order to develop local strategic recommendations.

In that context, the Imagine method, developed by Plan Bleu in the years 2000, will be reviewed towards Climagine and updated in order to consider to climate change concerns and to adapt it to the needs of two models which will be associated: DIVA RiVAMP. PAP/RAC coordinates the scientists working on the DIVA model and UNEP GRID Geneva will run the RiVAMP model.

The DIVA model will be applied at the national level in Croatia and Tunisia. The translation of DIVA to the local level is being carried out by the team of Professor Anil Markandya of BC3 (Basque Centre for Climate Change) for the local Croatian case, the Sibenik- Knin County. The RiVAMP model will be applied to the local pilot case of Kerkennah Islands in Tunisia.

Climagine is a participatory process structured in three workshops, combined with the results of DIVA and RiVAMP models, will allow local stakeholders to co-build scenarios of vulnerability and discuss possible ways for adaptation.

Finally, on the basis of a review of relevant existing methodologies, Plan Bleu is involved in the development of a methodology for the analysis of the impacts of climate variability and change on sectoral socio -economic activities (tourism, fishing, …) and sensitive areas at risk, according to vulnerabilities and climatic hazards.