The Mediterranean Rim countries, hit hard by climate change, are facing multiple tensions related to water access and urbanization.
Agriculture, demographics, environment, urbanization… The future of the Mediterranean Basin, which is already warming faster than the global average due to the climate crisis, looks grim. The Blue Plan expert group, the organization mandated by the United Nations Environment Programme to study this region and raise awareness among stakeholders and decision-makers on environmental and sustainable development issues, published its third forward-looking report on the future of the Mediterranean on Thursday, January 16. More than a hundred researchers from twenty countries have developed several more or less pessimistic scenarios for the region’s possible developments by 2050.
As a sign of the acceleration of the climate crisis, the previous report, published in 2005, underestimated several consequences. The region is particularly vulnerable to soil drought and water stress, large wildfires, sudden floods, devastating heatwaves both on land and at sea, as well as coastal erosion and salinization. Sea level rise could reach 40 centimeters as early as 2050.
Source: Le monde
