Participants confirmed their commitment to the objectives of the Paris Accord, the global pact for climate Action, called for closer integration of EU-wide policies on climate change, and for continued cooperation in the EU transnational disaster response mechanism.
Leaders from Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Slovenia, Malta, Portugal, and Spain expressed on Friday that there was an urgent need for global action to tackle an increasingly severe climate crisis and build a sustainable future for the Mediterranean basin.
In a joint statement the delegates conceded that “the Mediterranean is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change” and is already suffering “unprecedented ecological consequences” and its responsiveness has been stretched “to its limits.”
Scientists have found that the Mediterranean Sea has become a “wildfire hotspot” because man-made climate change makes heatwaves more likely and harder.
This summer saw Greece being hit by one of the fiercest fires on record, and fires raged across large parts of southern Italy, as deadly floods ravaged western Europe.
Hundreds of shops and houses in Greece are destroyed by fire, with the fires far outstripping national civil protection and firefighting and forcing Greece to take help from the Mediterranean countries.
“increasingly severe and complex disasters”Kyriakos Mitsotakis
Mediterranean countries agreed to increase co-operation to plan and prevention and urged the EU to strengthen its civil protection mechanisms to help better protect citizens and environment from “increasingly severe and complex disasters”
Alarmed by recent events in Afghanistan Greece has made clear its position on migration remains unchanged.
