‘Business as usual’ attitude has seen the region warm says Kadis

The latest scientific predictions surrounding climate change are dire and suggest that the region is heating up twice as fast as the rest of the planet, Agriculture Minister Costas Kadis said on Tuesday at COP27.

In a presentation, he explained that under a ‘business as usual’ attitude, the region “may have reached temperatures five degrees higher than those at the beginning of the century.”

Although Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East (EMME) countries expressed their willingness to comply with the Paris Agreement, the region is lacking detailed environmental observations and modeling, adequate mitigation and especially adaptation strategies. It is also lacking coordinated policy actions, sharing of good practices and common projects.

It is only by acting collectively, decisively and based on sound scientific knowledge that we can avoid the worst consequences of climate change in our region, Kadis said.

Kadis went on to say that the EMΜE – Climate Action Plan is ready to come into force and that following three years of intense preparatory work a solid scientific understanding of the nature of the evolving climate crisis has been achieved and actions to mitigate it and ameliorate its impacts have been identified which, he added, forms the basis of the Regional Action Plan.