The Mediterranean Expert on Climate and Environmental Change (MedECC; www.medecc.org) is a program initiated by scientists at the Aix-Marseille Université, France with the aim to provide an improved scientific assessment of climate change and its impacts in the Mediterranean Basin. Any interested scientist can become a member of MedECC through a simple sign-up at MedECC’s website, and currently about 370 individuals have joined the program.

The program aims at a coherent and comprehensive synthesis and assessment report on the recent and expected changes on environmental policy, that is lacking in the work carried out by large scientific organizations, such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCCC), and which is an essential prerequisite for devising a coherent and common mitigation and adaptation strategy for countries of the Mediterranean Basin. MedECC is currently pursuing the drafting of its first comprehensive report. To that end, scientists from Mediterranean countries and beyond have met to discuss the outline of three specific chapters addressing: (i) Water, food and energy, (ii) Ecosystems and ecosystem services and (iii) Development, health and human security. With the workshop on Ecosystems and ecosystem services in Marseille France this week, the series of workshops has been completed, and writing teams will start drafting reports on the topics mentioned.

The Energy, Environment and Water Research Center (EEWRC) of The Cyprus Institute has been involved in MedECC early on through the participation of Prof. Manfred Lange who was selected as a member of the 10-person MedECC Steering Committee. In the meantime, other colleagues have joined workshops and meetings of MedECC providing their expertise and striving to ensure that the Eastern Mediterranean is sufficiently covered in the MedECC assessment.

Scientists from around the Mediterranean Basin gathered in Marseille, France on 17-19 July, for the MedECC workshop on "Ecosystems and Ecosystem Services"

 
Scientists from around the Mediterranean Basin gathered in Palermo, Italy on 19-21 June for the MedECC workshop on "Development, Health and Human Security"

Scientists from around the Mediterranean Basin gathered in Rabat, Morocco, on 10-12 May for the MedECC workshop on "Water, Food, Energy"