49^th BUREAU MEETING

OF THE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY OF THE MEDITERRANEAN

 

6 June 2023, Rome, Italy

 

With Italy's Emilia-Romagna region suffering extremely intense flooding last May, resulting in the death of at least 15 people, there is an urgent need for international cooperation and solidarity to tackle climate change.

 

Flooding is set to increase throughout the Mediterranean region as a result of warmer air and rising sea levels.

 

Droughts are also becoming more frequent, and are likely to intensify if we don't rapidly reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.

 

In 2022, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) devoted a chapter of its report to the "Mediterranean Region". For researchers, the Mediterranean is a "hot spot" for global warming, i.e. a place where temperatures continue to increase faster than the global average.

 

In the Mediterranean, atmospheric temperature has already risen by 1.5°C since 1850. Sea temperatures have also incremented by between 0.29°C and 0.44°C per decade. Sea-level rise is irreversible and could reach an average of 1 meter by 2100, potentially affecting 42 million of the region's 500 million inhabitants.

 

PAM countries must take into account and anticipate the challenges posed by these foreseeable population movements.

 

Climate degradation will also have repercussions on marine and terrestrial ecosystems, affecting human activities (fishing, agriculture, tourism, etc.) and, more broadly, human health.

 

The various scenarios drawn up by the IPCC state unequivocally that heat waves will increasingly affect Mediterranean countries, particularly those of the Southern European, Maghreb and Middle East, where it is estimated that temperatures will rise by between 0.9°C and 5.6°C by 2100.

 

Moreover, the report anticipates a drop in rainfall between 4% and 22%, depending on the area. This will inevitably lead to the loss of up to 64% of arable land in selected areas. There is therefore an urgent need to improve water resource management in the Mediterranean basin. For irrigated farmland, it is estimated that this can be improved by 35%, while more drought-tolerant varieties of plants need to be cultivated.

 

PAM countries must cooperate to tackle the growing scarcity of fresh water resources and its serious consequences on the human right to water and sanitation for all, as well as on the region's food sovereignty.

 

 

Prepared by Hon. Gabriel Amard, France, PAM Rapporteur on Water