- The Secretary of State for the Environment closed the sixteenth installment of the #Biodirectos cycle, in which he stressed that climate change is a reality that, “although global, is not the same in all territories and countries”.
- Hugo Morán, also stressed that cooperation is important to address together “an unattainable challenge for economies with less opportunity for development”.
- All the participants who took part in the meeting agreed that international cooperation is key to contribute globally and effectively to climate change mitigation and adaptation.
The Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), has organized today the sixteenth edition of the #Biodirectos series, a series of meetings onlineThe event will be broadcast live and simultaneously on its different social media channels (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube).
This #Biodirectos, organized in collaboration with Casa África, has allowed us to share, debate and reflect, from the perspective of cooperation between Spain and Africa, on the main conclusions of the Synthesis Report of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) presented last March. The document integrates the results of the three previous working group reports and the three special reports published since 2018, thus completing the cycle initiated in 2015 in collaboration with thousands of scientists. In addition, the report is presented as a key tool at a time when governments are evaluating the policies implemented over the past eight years, within the framework of the Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015.
The meeting was closed by Hugo Morán, Secretary of State for the Environment of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, who stressed “the importance of cooperation to address together an unattainable challenge for economies with less opportunity for development”. Morán added that Spain’s climatic conditions make it appear as a Euro-African region, and stressed that climate change “is a reality which, although global, is not the same in all territories”.
During his speech, Hugo Morán also stressed the need to find “spaces for dialogue that help us to address the gaps between one country and another” in order to find global solutions together.
Also speaking today were Spanish and African authors who participated in the preparation of the IPCC report; Alejandro Caparrós, professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Durham (UK); Elena López-Gunn, CEO and founder of I-Catalist. S.L.; Marta Rivera-Ferre, CSIC Research Professor at INGENIO (CSIC-UPV); Debra Roberts, Honorary Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) and Portia Adade Williams, Research Scientist and co-author of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), CSIR-Science and Technology Policy Research Institute (Ghana).
During the meeting, all participants agreed that international cooperation is key to contribute globally and effectively to climate change mitigation and adaptation. They also stressed the need to promote access to scientific knowledge, improve governance to enable climate-resilient development and increase funding for action in less developed countries.
They also stressed that, in continents such as Africa, it is not only important to fund climate-related research, but also to develop non-scientific management knowledge, such as local knowledge and practical knowledge, using Nature-based Solutions (NBS), which are essential for planning and complex decision-making. The close link between these directly interrelated factors and climate justice, which responds to the social inequality with which the most vulnerable countries coexist, has also been highlighted.
IPCC AND EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published last March 2023 the results of its sixth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Synthesis Report, known as AR6. In this report, the scientific community analyzed the current situation and trends, future climate changes, long-term risks and responses and, finally, the responses that exist in the short term.
Some of the report’s conclusions point to human influence as the main cause of atmospheric, oceanic and land surface warming. The global average temperature of the Earth’s surface has experienced successive increases over the last four decades, such that in the period 2011-2020 it was approximately 1.09 °C higher than in the period 1850-1900.
The effects of climate change are especially relevant for the most vulnerable people and countries. Rising temperatures are causing extreme weather phenomena, heavy rains, floods and droughts, extraordinary heat waves, fires and rising sea levels, which threaten not only the stability of ecosystems, but also food chains, health, social and economic development and access to water. In this regard, 50% of the world’s population has already experienced water shortages at some point during the year.
In the case of Africa, it accounts for only 2 to 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions, but suffers disproportionately from the results. Rainfall patterns on the African continent have altered, glaciers are disappearing, major lakes are shrinking, and increased demand for water, combined with limited and unpredictable supply, threatens to exacerbate this situation.
Inequalities and differences between territories and countries limit the capacity to adapt to it. The situation in other continents and in countries such as Spain has also worsened with the increasingly frequent existence of heat waves, droughts and desertification, which are advancing at an alarming rate, coexisting with cold drops and other adverse climatic phenomena.
Against this backdrop, the main conclusion of the IPCC Report is clear, and there is an urgent need to undertake changes in the food, energy, transport, industry, cities and land use sectors, not only to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but also to help improve resilience and people’s quality of life.
IMPLEMENTATION OF NATIONAL PLANS
At the national level, the National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change (2021-2030), (PNACC), is currently being developed, in which a new assessment of impacts and risks derived from climate change in Spain will be carried out. This assessment will set the roadmap, with the following milestones and measures to be implemented, to be included in the Second Work Program (2026-2030) of the PNACC.
In addition, in order to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and curb the impact of global warming, the Spanish Government is increasing the ambition of the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan, promoting the modernization of the economy, environmental protection, the creation of productive fabric and employment, and the improvement of citizens’ health. Therefore, last week, the Council of Ministers, at the request of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, agreed to forward to the European Commission the draft of the first update of the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan 2021-2030 (PNIEC).
#BIODIRECTOS OF THE BIODIVERSITY FOUNDATION
The #Biodirectos are live and remote meetings, organized by the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, held through specific platforms and broadcast simultaneously on its different network channels with the aim of reflecting on the need to commit to a more sustainable, nature-friendly, resilient and low-carbon social and economic model and to make visible, in short, the opportunities offered by green recovery and ecological transition.
