A Comprehensive Investigation of Climate Change Strategies in the Mediterranean Region

Abstract

According to the five Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Reports published between 1990 and 2014, changes in the climate have had varying impacts on both society and natural systems. Climate change strategies have been created to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the unavoidable impacts of climate change. During research, we investigated climate change strategies in 21 Mediterranean countries (Albania, Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, Slovenia, Spain, Syria, Tunisia, and Turkey). There is no unequivocal delineation of the Mediterranean region, so countries were selected, which are surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea. Considering the available documents by spatial area and by category, in 7 countries (i.e. in 33.3% of the countries) no strategy can be found, in 4 countries (19%) a combined adaptation + mitigation category can be found, in 4 countries (19%) a complex category, in 2 countries (9.5%) we find mitigation and in 2 further countries a combined adaptation + mitigation + complex category (9.5%). The adaptation and the adaptation + complex categories are found in one country each (4.7%). According to World Bank Population data (2017), 506.2 million people live in these 21 countries, and 49.8 million people live in a country which has no climate change documents at all.