SCP as priority topic for the next Union for the Mediterranean Ministerial Conference on Environment and Climate Change

On the 10th and 11th of March took place a Stakeholder Conference  aiming at collecting the inputs from various stakeholders in the Mediterranean Region, in particular financial institutions, academia, UN agencies, industry associations, NGOs and CSOs. The consultation focused on 3 main topics: (i) the H2020 Initiative for the Depollution of the Mediterranean Sea, (ii) Climate Change, (iii) Sustainable Consumption and Production.

The working groups related to SCP ended with the elaboration of 5 conclusions and 24 recommendations to be considered by the Senior Officials for inclusion in the Ministerial declaration on Environment and Climate Change.

The 5 conclusions are the following:

• Poor mechanisms to provide technical and financial support to SMEs on RECP and eco-innovation

• Regulatory framework: SCP actions developed in isolated manner; lack of SCP integrated framework addressing national priorities

• Green Entrepreneurship: Current bureaucratic barriers and lack of financial mechanisms hinder the taking-off of green entrepreneurship projects

• Civil society lacks capacity and empowerment

• The lack of clear definitions and monitoring frameworks slows down the shift towards SCP and progress made in this endeavour

On the 13th and 14th of March took place the ad-hoc Senior Officials Meeting in which the first draft of the Ministerial Declaration has been discussed and modified according to the conclusions of the Stakeholder Consultation and interventions from the represented countries.

The discussions have been very constructive and led to a smooth agreement on the text of the Declaration to be presented for endorsement by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the 28 EU member states, the 15 Mediterranean countries and the European Commission on the 13th of May in Athens.

Taking advantage of those meetings, 2 additional meetings took place in parallel on the 12th of March, namely the Steering Group Meeting of the Horizon 2020 Initiative and a Climate Change Experts Group Meeting.

The H2020 Steering Group meeting aimed at reviewing the process of the 3 components of H2020 namely ((i) Capacity Building, (ii) Investments for Pollution Reduction and (iii) Review,  Monitoring and Research and discuss the orientations for the next years. In particular, participants highlighted that the 3 focus areas of the initiative (Waste water, Solid waste and industrial emissions) remain valid but they need to better integrate cross-sectorial implication and the pollution prevention dimension, including the root causes of pollution and cultural aspects. In this sense, SCP was recognized as a key approach to achieve the H2020 objectives but also to mitigate climate change.

Those meetings were also the occasion for the SCP/RAC team to communicate on the SWITCH-Med Programme and to conduct around 20 short interviews of key Mediterranean stakeholders (international institutions, NGO’s and CSO’s) that will feed the SWITCH-Med platform.

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