PREFACE
Climate change represents a major challenge in the Mediterranean region. Most of the Southern Mediterranean countries are experiencing rising temperatures, increasing water scarcity, and growing rates of desertification. Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent. They affect the quality of life and impact the key sectors of the economy, slowing down economic growth and exacerbating social and geopolitical tensions. Climate change adaptation and mitigation measures are therefore fundamental for promoting growth, sustainable living conditions, and ultimately stability and security in the region.
The adoption of the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) marked an unprecedented step in the global action against climate change, establishing the objective to limit global warming to less than two degrees Celsius. All Southern Neighbourhood countries, except Libya, have either already ratified, or are in the process of ratifying the Agreement, thus giving their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) a legal value. Moreover, it is essential to link the Paris Agreement to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 on “Affordable and clean energy”, SDG 13 on “Climate action”, SDG 11 on “Sustainable cities and communities” and SDG 12 on “Responsible consumption and production”.
The European Union (EU), as the world’s largest aid donor and a forerunner in market-based mechanisms, has unique expertise in fighting against climate change and a long tradition of assisting its partners in climate change adaptation and mitigation. In 2011, the European Commission committed to focus at least 20% of EU development spending during the 2014–2020 period to climate action. Moreover, the Paris Agreement confirmed the collective target by developed countries to provide $100 billion by 2020 for climate activities in developing countries from all sources, including mobilised private sector investments, with a new and higher target to be set by 2025.
In the Southern Mediterranean, climate action has become a key objective of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), which aims at supporting and fostering stability, security and prosperity. As the effects of climate change are felt across borders, a regional approach is needed in order to provide common answers to these challenges. Therefore, many of the EU’s cooperation activities on climate and sustainable energy in the Mediterranean have a regional scale. In particular, the EU has been partnering with national authorities in the region to enhance institutional capacity for strategic planning towards low carbon development and climate resilience.
National and local authorities have distinct responsibilities in the implementation of effective climate action. To this end, the EU cooperates with cities and local authorities in the Mediterranean, by preparing Sustainable Energy Access and Climate Action Plans (SEACAPs) and contributing to the implementation of climate actions and sustainable energy policies – improving access to energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy. In addition, the EU enhances local stakeholders’ capacity for adaptation and mitigation planning (including long-term Low Emission Development Strategies) and Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV).
These include greenhouse gas inventories, and climate vulnerability and risk assessments, thus achieving the objectives of the Covenant of Mayors initiative.
Cooperation measures have been implemented amongst others, in the framework of regional EU-funded projects such as “ClimaSouth: Support to Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in the ENP South Region”, CES-MED “Cleaner Energy Savings Mediterranean Cities”, SUDEP South “Sustainable Urban Development Programme”, MED-ENEC “Energy Efficiency in the Construction Sector in the Mediterranean” and “SwitchMed, sustainable consumption and production”. The EU is committed to supporting the development and the use of climate finance in an integrated way. It contributes to making available new generations of financial instruments, such as guarantees, risk-sharing instruments as well as the blending of grants and loans for sustainable development projects. Since 2008, the Neighbourhood Investment Facility (NIF) has contributed to mobilising funding to finance capital-intensive infrastructure projects in the Southern Neighbourhood, as well as supporting small and medium-sized enterprises.
The newly launched European External Investment Plan (EIP) will work towards achieving inclusive and sustainable growth and job creation in Sub-Saharan Africa and the EU Neighbourhood. The funding instrument of the EIP is the European Fund for Sustainable Development (EFSD) which includes a new guarantee instrument and blending facilities. Through leverage and blending, with some €4.1 billion of EU grant funding, the EU expects to mobilise concessional loans offered by international and EU Member States development banks to the extent of at least €44 billion of investments and technical assistance by 2020. The EFSD will directly promote climate change and energy transition initiatives under several of its “investment windows” such as “Sustainable Energy and Connectivity”; “Sustainable Agriculture, Rural Entrepreneurs and Agribusiness”; and “Sustainable Cities”.