It is the UN climate panel IPCC that in a report again classifies the Mediterranean region as a “hotspot” – a designation that means the area is considered particularly vulnerable to climate change.
In the report, the researchers write that the changes, in the form of, among other things, rising temperatures, drought and violent forest fires, are also happening at an increasingly rapid pace – and with increasingly tangible effects.
Among other things, tens of millions of people are at risk of being exposed to potentially fatal extreme heat of the type that has swept over parts of Southern Europe in recent weeks as the heat waves become increasingly intense.
A man carries his daughter in his arms, fleeing from one of the large fires that have raged in recent days on the Greek island of Rhodes. Growing problems
Problems of drought and lack of drinking water also risk worsening “in most places” in the Mediterranean region
According to the IPCC report, lakes and water reservoirs in the area are expected to decrease by up to 45 percent over the next hundred years. In the North African part of the region, access to surface water is expected to decrease by 55 percent.
EU Commission Drought Observatory EDO warned also already in June because the groundwater reserves in half of the countries in the Mediterranean region were at low levels.
Fish can become extinct
The IPCC report also addresses serious economic consequences of the rising temperatures in the area – including for the fishing industry, which is so important to the region.
“The change in the Mediterranean ecosystem, which is characterized by reduced biodiversity and by more invasive species, has been ongoing since the 1980s,” the researchers write in the report.
The researchers also warn that a global warming of more than 1.5 degrees could lead to more than 20 percent of the fish caught for commercial purposes being extinct by 2060.
Dry serious problem
Spain is one of the Mediterranean countries hit hardest by both extreme heat and drought. This year’s April was the driest ever, with 38.8 degrees recorded in April in the city of Córdoba – the highest temperature ever recorded in Europe so far this early in the year.
Two women seek shelter from the sun under an umbrella in the Spanish city of Seville. Record temperatures of up to 44 degrees were measured here last summer. Archive image.
In Italy, a state of emergency was declared in 2022 in five of the country’s northern regions after the country was hit by the worst drought in 70 years. The drought also turned Italy’s longest river, the Po, into a long stretch of sand – and this year too, there is a serious water shortage in the country. Among other things, the lowest water level in 70 years was measured in April in the country’s largest lake, Lake Garda, according to the EU’s environmental monitoring program Copernicus.
In May, boats were ashore in what is usually a shipyard at Toricella, near Cremona, on the River Po. Italy’s largest river showed record low water levels during the spring.
Italy has also been hit hard by the recent heat wave. In the capital Rome, a new temperature record was set, 41.8 degrees – over two degrees warmer than the old record, which was set as recently as June last year. At the same time, 45 degrees were recorded in Sardinia.
Extensive forest fires have been raging for several days on the Greek island of Rhodes. Archive image.
Already in 2021 – in a draft of the current report from the UN Climate Panel – the Mediterranean region was judged to be particularly vulnerable to climate change.
In 2010, a research group at the University of Bern also calculated that the intensity and duration of heat waves in the area had increased by up to seven times since the 1960s.
Last summer was the hottest ever recorded in Europe, according to Copernicus. So far, the temperature in our continent has never crossed the 50 mark, but the symbol-saturated listing is now feared to be only a matter of time.