MAP’s priority theme VI: Climate Change

The issue of how climate change will affect the marine and coastal environment has become a major concern at international level, with particular relevance to the Mediterranean and its coastal regions.

The Tunis Declaration adopted at the “International Solidarity Conference on Climate Change

Strategies for African and Mediterranean Regions” on 20 November 2007, calls upon the states concerned to reduce their vulnerability and define adaptation strategies, and asks for these issues to be placed at the top of international priorities.

Within this context, and in line with the objectives of the Barcelona Convention and the MSSD MAP as a regional programme dealing with the marine and coastal environment and sustainable development, should address and tackle the climate issue and to do so in cooperation with all relevant actors whilst taking due account of its own terms of reference and its human, technical and financial capacities. MAP should therefore concentrate on the regional aspect of this issue, the global aspects being dealt with by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the major international Agencies.

- A first priority within this context is to assess the impact of climate change on the marine environment, coastal zones and natural resources, building on the work of the IPCC and drawing on Mediterranean expertise.

- Secondly, the region's vulnerability in terms of the environment and natural resources should also be identified and analysed and action be taken to ensure that preventive action to preserve the marine and coastal environment is integrated in adaptation strategies. The region’s vulnerability in this respect is liable to generate vulnerability in socio-economic and land management terms. Numerous activities such as energy production, agriculture, fisheries and tourism could be rendered more vulnerable by the impact of the climate change phenomenon.

- The third priority is to examine the economic feasibility and to pre-empt the possible environmental impacts which could be generated by mitigation and adaptation activities, particularly in the marine environment (exploitation of marine energy, CO2 sequestration under sub-sea bed geological structures to avoid the possible water column disposal) as well as the coastal one (defence works against rising sea levels).