On Thursday, 12^th of December 2019, the Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment, Dr. Costas Kadis, and the Advisor to the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Special Envoy on Climate Change and President of The Cyprus Institute, Prof Costas N. Papanicolas, presented the Cyprus Government Initiative for Coordinating Climate Change Actions in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East (EMME) Region at the UN Climate Change Conference COP25 in Madrid.

As Minister Kadis stated during his intervention at the Conference “As a small country we recognize that our national contribution towards ameliorating the impacts of climate change is limited. We seek therefore for regional cooperation towards coordinated policy actions, joint activities, common projects and sharing of good practices”. Minister Kadis and Prof Papanicolas presented in detail the Initiative’s intergovernmental and scientific components at a side event organised by the Union for the Mediterranean Secretariat and the Cyprus Government titled “A science-policy interface on risks of climate and environmental change in the Mediterranean region and Middle East”.

In his address, Prof Papanicolas noted that scientist have a good understanding of climate change’s challenges, and they have the technology to partially address them. In particular, even the market forces are in the right direction, although politics stands in the way.

The Cyprus Government Initiative for Climate Change aims at developing an Action Plan to address the specific needs and challenges of countries in the EMME region and to ameliorate the impacts of climate change, which according to recent studies from prominent institutions is a global “climate hot-spot” with particularly high vulnerability to climate change impacts. The Action Plan proposed a Comprehensive Scientific Report produced by eminent scientists from the region coordinated by The Cyprus Institute and will include valid mitigation actions in accordance with the Paris Agreement.

An important milestone in the activities of the Initiative will be the organisation of the 2nd International Conference on Climate Change in the Mediterranean and the Middle East: Challenges and Solutions, held by The Cyprus Institute on 15th and 16th of October 2020. At this Conference, the eminent scientists involved in the scientific component of the Initiative, will have the opportunity to present and discuss their findings and proposed actions in areas such as temperature and water projections, extreme weather events, energy systems, built environment, health etc.

Following the success of the Conference organised in May 2018 by The Cyprus Institute under the aegis of President Anastasiades, attended by eminent scientists and policy makers such as L. Fabius, P. Taalas, J. Sachs from thirty countries as well as leaders of global recognition, it is expected that the Conference in 2020 will attract leading Policy Makers, Scientists, Stakeholders and Opinion-Leaders from around the world.