Social, Environmental and Security Impacts of Climate Change on the Eastern Mediterranean

Abstract

This chapter discusses climate change impacts for the Eastern Mediterranean, with a particular emphasis on the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) that comprise the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2007a: 13), the average global temperature is projected to rise until 2100 by a range of 1.1–6.4°C, and the sea level has been projected to rise between 18 and 58 cm.2 Data on the projected climate change at the regional scale are lacking (IPCC 1990, 1996a, 1998, 2001a, 2007a, 2007b, 2007c, 2007d).