Lead Organization CMI   Partners World Bank, Mediterranean Observatory of Energy (OME), Mediterranean Association of the National Agencies for Energy Conservation (MEDENER)   Rationale Given its geographic position, the Mediterranean region plays a key role in the implementation of the Paris Agreement, as we move on from Conference of Parties 21 (...

Context The Mediterranean region is likely to figure prominently in the discussions taking place on the road from COP21 to COP22, and during the COP22 event itself. The Paris agreement addressed how much developing countries should take on climate change mitigation responsibilities, how developed countries should support developing countries...

No Country Alone, a new documentary on climate change in the Mediterranean region, produced by the European Union funded ClimaSouth project, was launched on 2 March at the European Parliament. The documentary examines, in the aftermath of the historical Paris agreement, the reality of climate change through the experiences of ordinary...

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has never faced such significant stress on its ageing infrastructure like it does today, with one of the most telling being the substantial increase in the need for electricity. It is estimated that electricity demand in the MENA region will increase by 84% by 2020. Tunisia has the opportunity to...

International community programs must not only focus on the countries which host the most Syrian refugees – Lebanon and Jordan –, but must also take Syria into account. This is the view put forward by Abdallah Al Dardari, former Minister of Planning in Syria and Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for...

Over the past several years much has been written about the significant potential for solar energy generation in the Middle East and North Africa, where there is no shortage of sunshine. The International Energy Agency estimated that the potential from concentrated solar power technology alone could amount to 100 times the electricity demand of...

Although very vulnerable to the effects of climate change, the countries of the southern Mediterranean shore are struggling to implement climate change mitigation and adaptation programs. Climate investment scale-up is necessary, together with better targeting of financing and eliminating investment barriers, to ensure sustainable development and...

The common view is that climate change exacerbates poverty and hurts economic growth. Economic development has contributed to an unsustainable rise in the greenhouse gas emissions that are destabilising the global climate system. There is now a consensus that climate change affects development and challenges the ability to eradicate poverty....

Pressure on water resources has reached critical levels in many countries in the Mediterranean Basin. Sophisticated water mobilization strategies have been implemented but physical, financial and environmental constraints linked to such supply-side approach demonstrate that better management of already mobilized water is necessary. Acting upon...

By Melissa Bell   Ours was a debate before the big debate that’s to take place in December. The whole world will be meeting in Paris in the hope of finding a deal that would limit greenhouse emissions to 2 degrees above pre industrial levels. The aim is about as ambitious as it could be: to agree the first universal and legally binding...

By Silvia Pariente-David   As the European Commission launches its new Energy Union Package -  a set of three Communications setting the strategy for a secure, sustainable, competitive and affordable energy - , it is the perfect time for the Mediterranean countries to seize the moment, join the “energy transition” movement and commit to the...