Climate and Environmental Change in the Mediterranean Basin - Current Situation and Risks for the Future: 1st Mediterranean Assessment Report

The overarching goal of this report, prepared by MedECC, is to provide a synthesis of the current state and expected risks of climate and environmental change in the Mediterranean basin, based on existing knowledge and scientific literature. A first draft of the 1st Mediterranean Assessment Report (MAR1) was prepared in 2019 and underwent expert peer review. The second draft, revised to take into account review comments, has undergone broad consultation with governments, decision-makers and stakeholders in 2020. The final report includes a Summary for Policy-makers (SPM), which comprises the key messages of the MAR1. The assessment considers three major interconnected domains, namely resources (water, food and energy), ecosystems (marine, coastal and land), and society (development, health and security).

MAR1 is intended to support policies in deriving mitigation and adaptation strategies, particularly in the context of Mediterranean cooperation under policies of the European Union, Arab League, EU-Africa and EU-Asia cooperation, North African Unions, Maghreb and Mashriq. To provide adequate support, MAR1 has been inspired by other science-policy interfaces such as the IPCC and IPBES, aiming to provide an unbiased, scientific view of climate and environmental change, its various, multi-sectoral impacts and the risks they imply for society.

A critical review of a range of adaptation and mitigation examples are provided in Chapter 6 (Managing future risks and building socio-ecological resilience), promoting their synergies, as well cooperation and networking among the Mediterranean countries for building resilience.

Complementary to this publication, MedECC also prepared an atlas to illustrate changes in seasonal temperature and precipitation in Mediterranean countries, considering a range of future periods and the two greenhouse gas emission pathways (RCP2.6 and RCP8.5) discussed in MAR1.