It aims to accurately assess the impacts associated with climate change, in order to make good planning of actions and an efficient use of available resources.

The study on regional projections of the effect of climate change on the entire Spanish coast, carried out jointly with the Environmental Hydraulics Institute of Cantabria Foundation within the framework of the Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change on the Spanish Coast, was presented today at the headquarters of MITECO.

The purpose of the work has been to obtain projections of variables such as: waves, meteorological tide, sea level and sea surface temperature along the Spanish coast due to the effect of climate change, both in the medium and long term.

With this, the study aims to accurately assess the impacts associated with climate change, in order to make a good planning of actions and an efficient use of available resources.

The Ministry for Ecological Transition, through the General Directorate of Sustainability of the Coast and the Sea, has carried out this work within the project called “Development of the methodology and databases for the projection of Climate Change impacts along the Spanish coast”, in collaboration with the Environmental Hydraulics Institute of Cantabria Foundation at a cost of 355,000 euros. 

With the projections presented today, uncertainty is reduced in relation to the variables analysed, which will improve the management of the coastline under the criteria established in the Strategy for adaptation to Climate Change of the Spanish coast prepared by this Ministry.

Based on the premises established in the Strategy for the Adaptation of the Coast to the Effects of Climate Change, MITECO is making progress in the drafting of instruments for the protection of the coast by sections, which constitutes a complete, orderly and systematic plan of the actions that are necessary for each physiographic unit.

The strategies for the protection of the coast of Huelva, Granada, El Maresme (Barcelona) and those of the south of the provinces of Castellón and Valencia have already been drafted and are being implemented through the drafting of the corresponding projects.

In addition, work is being done on the instruments that will allow the protection of the Mar Menor and the Ebro Delta, as well as the coasts of the province of Almeria, Malaga and Cadiz, the latter with financing from European Union funds through the Support Program for Structural Reforms.

Work has also begun on the drafting of the tool for the protection of the Balearic coast.

Having these documents will make it possible for both the management of the coast, and the investments carried out on it, to be based on prior rational planning, from the management of the public domain to increase the effectiveness of management and the efficiency of spending.