On this year's World Meteorological Day, the Territorial Delegation of Andalucía, Ceuta and Melilla Meteorological Agency (AEMET) invited the Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation to participate in the event with a presentation on the Challenges related to Climate Change in the Mediterranean. The event was chaired by the assistant government representative in Malaga, Miguel Briones Artacho.

Under the theme "Hotter, drier and wetter. Face the future", the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has highlighted that many regions of the world were affected by heat waves in 2015, many heat records were broken this year. WMO said that the most affected cities in spain were Lanzarote and Valencia, where the temperatures have reach 46.2 ° C in May, 6 higher than the previous record for that month. Similarly, maximum temperature were reached (47.6 ° C) in Luxor (Egypt) in July.

IUCN-Med stressed that this data reinforces the predictions of the IPCC for the Mediterranean region on rising temperatures and the number of heat waves and water stress the region will be facing in the future. Therefore, we highlighted the need for further investigations of nature-based solutions in the region. These solutions use services provided by ecosystems to both mitigate the effects and adapt to climate change, for example: the Mediterranean meadows of Posidonia act as carbon sinks.

For more information: Andrés Alcántara