Rising global temperatures greatly affect the Mediterranean region, underlined speakers on the second day at the International Conference on Climate Change entitled “Climate Change in the Mediterranean and Middle East, challenges and solutions” that began on Friday in Nicosia.

The Conference is organized by the Cyprus Institute (CyI)  and is taking place under the aegis of the President of the Republic of Cyprus, with support from the Representation of the European Commission in Cyprus.

Dr Wolfgang Cramer, environmental geographer and global ecologist who is a CNRS senior scientist at the Mediterranean Institute for Biodiversity and Ecology, said change is accelerating and we are not doing enough, in his speech on” Environmental change represents multiple risks for sustainable development in the Mediterranean Basin.”

He said not only global warming is real but it is faster in this part of the world with a 1.5 C temperature rise approaching in the Mediterranean.

He further said that for every degree of global warming, the weather in the Mediterranean gets 25% more warmer here than the rest of the world and this is not a prediction. In addition, for every degree of warming, you get a reduction of rainfall, he remarked.

Marine life, said Cramer, will also be affected while wind energy potential will be affected by warming too.

On the other hand, he said the Mediterranean needs to closely watch the rising sea levels in the Antarctica as evidence show warming in oceans enhances the speed of ice loss “making this the most horrific scenario we can think of “ which is “at our doorstep”.

People that live close to sea levels will be affected while the economic impact will be very immediate, he noted.

Cramer said current policies do not address these issues. The IMBE’s ambition is to develop a scientifically assessment and the impacts in the Mediterranean basin and a regional science policy interface on climate and environmental change in the Mediterranean that will be approved by policy makers.

The future, he said, presents unprecedented risks for human well being, socio-economic development, ecosystems and biodiversity and only Paris Agreement on Climate Change can help.

Theodoulos Mesimeris, Senior Environment Officer and Head of Climate Action and Energy Unit at the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment of Cyprus said that every year from 2013 to 2020 we have the overall target to reduce emissions by 5%.

However, he said it will not be possible to achieve this target with the existing policy measures as we will have to introduce additional measures.

Our new tool for the preparation of a national plan has to show the way that Cyprus will achieve its commitments. We will structure the way we are having the policy measures, link the other policies we have in place in a better way and we believe will achieve new policy targets, he noted.

He also talked about the need to cooperate with neighbouring countries.

To reduce CO2 emissions at least 40% by 2030, this can be achieved only with collaboration with all member states of EU, he added .

Charles Ellinas, non resident Senior Fellow at the Global Energy Centre of the Atlantic Council, talked about the challenges in achieving the Paris Climate Agreement and the need for orderly, stable and affordable energy transition and noted that renewable energy technologies are paving the way. However, he said, fossil fuel industry is becoming more competitive. It provides 85% of global primary energy with only 3% renewables and  by 2040 global primary energy will increase by 35% in line with 1.7 billion population growth and rising prosperity.

The world, he said, will need to move into even faster transition, adding that by 2040 renewables will account for a third of global primary energy but with 50% fossil fuels. So we will “still need to rely on fossil fuels for time to come,” he noted, adding that clean energy is not around the corner nor there is a cheap solution.

He presented the Shell Sky scenario which illustrates a technically possible, but challenging pathway for society to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. The scenario claims it is consistent with limiting the global average temperature rise to well below 2°C from pre-industrial levels.  Ellinas said Shell’s SKY scenario offers such a pathway

Concluding, Ellinas said that we need pragmatic and achievable approaches and that just saying ‘increased ambition is greatly needed and must be accelerated’ is not sufficient, it must also be realistic. Solutions need to be commercially competitive, help reduce energy costs and contribute to a better quality of life, he noted.

Dr. Khaled Toukan, Director General of the Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East Centre (SESAME), presented the case of Jordan which is undergoing change in energy policy.

He said the influx of refugees has caused a strain on energy and water.

The main goals of energy strategy of his country is to diversify energy resources to meet its domestic energy demand for fossil fuels, with energy imports accounting for more than 40% of the government’s budget.

He said that the uncertainty and vulnerability of energy supplies and increasing costs are severely affecting the growth of Jordan’s economy and security, hence the development of secure alternative energy supplies is a top priority for the country.

Jordan, he said, needs to reduce dependency on imported oil, thus increasing environmental awareness.

In his presentation, Professor Manuel J. Blanco, Vice-chairman of SolarPACES, said “we have already technologies to power the world with renewable energies”.

He said it is a question of political will if we will go on that road, adding that “solar energy can power the world”.

Lassina Zerbo, Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, called for cooperation between science and policy. He said that at the CBT they are talking about science to serve policy to stop testing nuclear weapons

He emphasised the need for scientistis and policy makers to work together and share data and collaborate in the interest of climate change.