Regional Climate Change Adaptation Framework for the Mediterranean Marine and Coastal Areas

The main objective of the Framework is to define a regional strategic approach to increase the resilience of the Mediterranean marine and coastal natural and socioeconomic systems to the impacts of climate change, assisting policy makers and stakeholders at all levels across the Mediterranean in the development and implementation of coherent and effective policies and measures.

The development of the Framework was guided by the vision that by 2025 the marine and coastal areas of the Mediterranean countries and their communities have increased their resilience to the adverse impacts of climate variability and change, in the context of sustainable development. This is to be achieved through common objectives, cooperation, solidarity, equity and participatory governance.

The focus of the Framework, coherently with the legal framework set by the Protocols of the Barcelona Convention, is on the marine and coastal environments of the Mediterranean. Its geographical scope is that of the Barcelona Convention, i.e. the Mediterranean Sea and the coastal zones of the 21 countries that border it. The Framework recognizes that climatic changes will have impacts that do not respect the boundaries of a coastal zone as it is usually defined, and that coastal adaptation actions may be required further inland, in particular in inland watersheds.

Following the endorsement of the Framework by the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention at their 19th Ordinary Meeting (COP 19, Athens, Greece, February 2016), the UN Environment/Mediterranean Action Plan system offers it to policy makers and stakeholders in the Mediterranean region as a structured outline to facilitate the identification of strategic objectives, strategic directions and priorities for adapting to climate change.