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Mediterranean Nations Committed to Confronting Climate Emergencies

Ministers at the meeting of the second Union for the Mediterranean. (UfM)
Ministers at the meeting of the second Union for the Mediterranean. (UfM)
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Mediterranean Nations Committed to Confronting Climate Emergencies

Ministers at the meeting of the second Union for the Mediterranean. (UfM)
Ministers at the meeting of the second Union for the Mediterranean. (UfM)

Ministers from the 42 member countries of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) gathered in Cairo on Monday for the 2nd Ministerial Conference on Environment and Climate action held under the co-presidency of Jordan and the European Union (EU).

The ministers agreed on a common agenda to strengthen efforts in the Euro-Mediterranean region to tackle the multiple climate and environmental challenges it faces urgently.

The commitment reflects the highest possible ambition in accelerating the transition towards sustainable, climate-neutral, and green economies.

The conference was chaired by Frans Timmermans, European Commission Executive Vice-President for the European Green Deal, and Nabil Masarweh, Jordan's Minister of Environment, attended by Secretary-General of the UfM Secretariat, Nasser Kamel. Egypt was represented by Minister of Environment, Yasmine Fouad.

The second ministerial conference comes at a critical moment for the region, only a few weeks ahead of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) and following a summer dominated by climate and environmental emergencies across the region.

The dire warning calls of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the network of Mediterranean experts on climate change (MedECC) also drew attention to the Mediterranean as one of the world's climate change hotspots.

During the Cairo conference, ministers acknowledged the urgency of taking action, stressing a firm commitment to tackle climate and environmental challenges by fully implementing the Paris Agreement and the Agenda 2030.

The ministers reiterated their commitment to lead by example and reflect the highest possible ambition by accelerating the transition towards fair, resilient, climate-neutral, and resource-efficient economies to limit average global temperature rise to 1.5°C, halt and reverse biodiversity loss and reduce air pollution.

They stressed the importance of including environment and climate action in all sectoral policies, including energy, industry, agriculture, and transportation, while mobilizing and expanding resources to support the green transition.

Investments and sustainable finance featured high on the agenda and the need to step up action on adaptation and reinforce the science-policy nexus.

The ministers emphasized the need to progressively reduce the use of fossil fuels, ensure a just transition and engage all stakeholders in environmental and climate policy-making, as well as the importance of supporting women and youth engagement in building resilience and driving the green transition.

The UfM Secretariat was mandated to support the implementation of the objectives of this declaration and monitor progress through its Environment and Climate working group.

High-level representatives of international financial institutions and UfM senior officials discussed the challenges and opportunities of the green transition in the Mediterranean in an event on investments organized by the EU and the UfM at the margins of the ministerial conference.

The discussion focused on potential trends and tools to accelerate the transition towards the region's clean, fair, and competitive economies.

The conference also saw the UfM hold a joint event with the United Nations Development Program on Biological Diversity, Ecosystem Restoration, and Food Systems. It helped establish the first steps to implement the recommendations outlined in the Declaration.

The importance of these steps was made clear by the latest IUCN reports, which indicate that some 62 million macro-litter items are floating on the surface of the Mediterranean basin.

Timmermans said that the climate crisis is existential for all of humanity and transcends borders and politics, stressing that establishing a sustainable future for all citizens across the Mediterranean is a shared responsibility.

"It is time to act and fulfill the commitments we all made under the Paris agreement. Today we have set a bold and ambitious vision for a clean, competitive, resilient, and inclusive Mediterranean. I hope our joint ambition is an example for other regions to follow."

The EU Commissioner for the Environment Oceans and Fisheries, Virginijus Sinkevicius, noted that the countries of the Mediterranean share a rich natural heritage and a common concern for the effects of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.

"We now have a renewed commitment to address these challenges together with an ambitious plan of action to protect the environment for future generations. The recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic allows us to build back better and greener together."

Masarweh noted that the Mediterranean region was shown to be one of the biggest climate change hotspots.

He explained that temperature in the area warms 20 percent faster than the global mean temperature, as was indicated by the MedECC report, besides other environmental challenges that the region faces.

Kamel underlined that the Mediterranean Sea has a fragile ecosystem that suffers from different problems, such as biodiversity loss, overfishing, pollution, coastal degradation, and marine litter.

The alarming effects of climate change exacerbate the fragility of this ecosystem.

"The more closely the Euro-Mediterranean community works together, the more funding we will be able to generate and the more effectively we'll be able to use it," he said.

The UfM has been very active in this regard, firstly by treating marine litter as an environmental and economic problem, and most importantly, mobilizing funds targeting key regional operational initiatives to fight climate change.

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Varieties

All But 2 of Austria's 96 Glaciers Have Retreated Over Last 2 Years

FILE - The Sulzenauferner Glacier is visible near Innsbruck, Austria, on Sept. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)
FILE - The Sulzenauferner Glacier is visible near Innsbruck, Austria, on Sept. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)
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All But 2 of Austria's 96 Glaciers Have Retreated Over Last 2 Years

FILE - The Sulzenauferner Glacier is visible near Innsbruck, Austria, on Sept. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)
FILE - The Sulzenauferner Glacier is visible near Innsbruck, Austria, on Sept. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)

All but two of Austria’s 96 glaciers have retreated over the last two years, monitors in the Alpine country reported Friday, saying the “dramatic development” highlights the impact of climate change.

The latest report from the Austrian Alpine Club shows the Alpeiner Ferner in the western Tyrol region and Stubacher Sonnblickkees in Salzburg to the east are facing the greatest loss, each with a retreat of more than 100 meters (about 330 feet). The average retreat was more than 20 meters (65 feet).

“The disintegration of the glacier tongue is also progressing at the Pasterze, Austria’s largest glacier, making the consequences of climate change visible,” the club said in the report covering 2024 and 2025.

The report, it added, “confirms once again the long-term trend: Glaciers in Austria continue to shrink significantly in length, area, and volume.”

FILE - The Gaisskarferner Glacier is visible near Innsbruck, Austria, Monday, Sept. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, file)

The retreat of glaciers in Europe has vast implications for drinking water, power generation, agriculture, infrastructure, recreational activities, the Alpine landscape and more.

Neighboring Switzerland, which is home to the most glaciers in Europe, has noted a similar retreat in its glaciers in recent years, a trend that has been reported around the world.

Poor weather conditions including low snowfall, warm temperatures including an exceptionally hot June last year — nearly 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit) above the average — have contributed to the retreat, The Associated Press quoted the club as saying.

“The glaciers are melting — and with every new report, the urgency grows,” club vice president Nicole Slupetzky said. “It’s no longer a question of whether we can still save the glaciers in their old form; it’s about mitigating the consequences for ourselves.”

Such changes in the Alps should serve as a “wake-up call” for policymakers and the public in its behavior, the club said.

It said the current figure was lower than during the previous two years, but still ranks as the eight-largest retreat in the 135 years of measurements.

Varieties

Snow Geese Take Off for the Arctic in Mesmerizing Sunrise Display

Snow geese take to the sky at sunrise after a stopover at the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, Monday, March 9, 2026, in Kleinfeltersville, Pa. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Snow geese take to the sky at sunrise after a stopover at the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, Monday, March 9, 2026, in Kleinfeltersville, Pa. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
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Snow Geese Take Off for the Arctic in Mesmerizing Sunrise Display

Snow geese take to the sky at sunrise after a stopover at the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, Monday, March 9, 2026, in Kleinfeltersville, Pa. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Snow geese take to the sky at sunrise after a stopover at the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, Monday, March 9, 2026, in Kleinfeltersville, Pa. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

A few dozen birdwatchers gathered in the predawn darkness to wait for the moment when thousands of migrating snow geese stopped honking and preening to suddenly take flight from a Pennsylvania reservoir.

The mesmerizing display, about an hour after sunrise, was over almost as soon as it began. The birds circled a few times and then headed out to neighboring farm fields, seeking unharvested grains and other sustenance on their epic annual spring flight northward into New York state and Quebec.

The Pennsylvania reservoir was built a half-century ago to attract waterfowl and over the years the gaggle has grown. Pennsylvania Game Commission environmental education specialist Payton Miller described it as a raucous bird tornado that lifts off the water.

“All it takes is for me to come out here on a really nice morning where there’s a huge morning flight and I’m kind of reminded how awesome it is to see such a large number of such a beautiful bird,” The Associated Press quoted Miller as saying. “I never get sick of it.”

Among those taking it all in was Adrian Binns, a safari guide from Paoli, Pennsylvania, who went to the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area for “the whole enjoyment of seeing something you don't see every day.”

Snow geese have been arriving in growing numbers at the 6,300-acre (25 square kilometers) Middle Creek property since the late 1990s. At this time of year, they have just spent months along the Atlantic coast, from New Jersey south to the Carolinas, with many of them overwintering on the Delmarva Peninsula that forms the Chesapeake Bay.

They don’t stay long at Middle Creek — it’s just a way station on their journey to summer breeding grounds in the Canadian Arctic and western Greenland.

But for a few short weeks they are the main attraction at Middle Creek, which draws about 150,000 visitors annually — including about a thousand hunters.

Pairs of tundra swans (larger birds) and Canada geese fly over the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, Monday, March 9, 2026, in Kleinfeltersville, Pa. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

The Pennsylvania Game Commission, which owns Middle Creek, says about 100,000 snow geese were roosting there on the busiest day last year, on par with recent peak activity but below the single-day record of about 200,000 on Feb. 21, 2018.

Snow geese are doing well, but their large numbers have come with a cost.

According to a 2017 study published by Springer Nature, greater snow geese grew in population from about 3,000 in the early 20th century to some 700,000 by the 1990s. By some estimates, there are about a million of the birds now — along with maybe 10 million of lesser snow geese, which are smaller — that also breed in the Arctic.

The number of migrating tundra swans at Middle Creek, while far lower, has also increased over time, from a dozen or so in the mid-1970s to 5,000 or more in recent years. Middle Creek birders have also identified more than 280 bird species on the site, among them bald eagles, northern harriers, ospreys and owls.

As snow geese numbers have boomed in recent decades, wildlife officials in the US and Canada have navigated a balancing act involving hunting regulations, concerns about crop damage, shifts in snow geese migration and changes to overwintering patterns. Environmental damage from overgrazing in the Arctic has led experts to conclude the birds are overabundant.

David M. Bird, a McGill University wildlife biology professor, described the population as “probably one of the biggest conservation problems facing wildlife biologists in North America today.” Snow geese feed by pulling up plants by the roots, which damages habitats for themselves, various birds and other kinds of wildlife.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission reported recently that avian influenza viruses, present in the state since 2022, continue to circulate among the state’s wild birds. The game agency asked for the public’s help in reporting sick or dead wild birds and reported that about 2,000 wild bird carcasses — mostly snow geese — had to be removed from a quarry a few miles north of Bethlehem in December and January.

Bird said that for nature lovers, snow geese can be a delight but for farmers, they're a pest. For hunters, they're food but for animal rights advocates, they're a species that needs protection, he said.

“But if you are a paid professional wildlife manager at a municipal, state or federal level whose challenging job is to try to please all of the aforementioned parties, then you will undoubtedly experience many sleepless nights in the fall when the geese arrive,” Bird said.

Varieties

London’s Most Urban Riding School Transforms Lives Through Horses

Children ride horses around a paddock during a class at the Ebony Horse Club in Brixton, Britain's most urban riding school, where children from under-privileged communities are taught to ride horses, in London, Britain, March 10, 2026. (Reuters)
Children ride horses around a paddock during a class at the Ebony Horse Club in Brixton, Britain's most urban riding school, where children from under-privileged communities are taught to ride horses, in London, Britain, March 10, 2026. (Reuters)
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London’s Most Urban Riding School Transforms Lives Through Horses

Children ride horses around a paddock during a class at the Ebony Horse Club in Brixton, Britain's most urban riding school, where children from under-privileged communities are taught to ride horses, in London, Britain, March 10, 2026. (Reuters)
Children ride horses around a paddock during a class at the Ebony Horse Club in Brixton, Britain's most urban riding school, where children from under-privileged communities are taught to ride horses, in London, Britain, March 10, 2026. (Reuters)

Sandwiched between social housing blocks and busy train tracks in south London is Britain's most urban riding school, where children from disadvantaged backgrounds learn to ride horses as part of a project aimed at improving their well-being.

About 160 children each week attend the Ebony Horse Club, a 30-year-old charity in the Brixton area of the capital which ranks amongst the most deprived in England and is a hotspot for knife crime.

Outside the stables, opened in 2011 by Queen Camilla, nine-year-old Matthew Sanchez shoveled horse dung into a wheelbarrow before his lesson.

Like ‌many of the ‌children who come for classes, he had never ‌encountered ⁠a horse before. ⁠But riding teacher Rachel Scott-Hayward, 37, said the children grow in confidence over weeks, learning to ride, grooming the animals and mucking out the stables.

Nylah Murray Charles, aged nine, said she was nervous before trotting on a horse for the first time.

"I got scared a bit, but I was like maybe I should just give it a ⁠try... when I tried, it was actually great ‌and I had fun," she said.

The ‌club is an oasis of rural charm in Brixton, about three miles (5 km) ‌from central London, where the smell of hay hangs in ‌the air. Lessons are free - a contrast to similar stables in wealthier parts of the city, where a 30-minute class can cost around 50 pounds ($67).

Scott-Hayward said while horse riding was traditionally "a white, upper-class hobby", the charity made ‌it accessible to local children, about 45% of whom identify as being from an ethnic minority.

The stables ⁠have become ⁠a home-from-home for Shanice Reid, 29, since she first learnt to ride with the project as a schoolgirl. She now teaches at the club and said it offers "somewhere to escape" for those with difficult home or school lives.

Between 2010 and 2019, about a third of London's youth clubs closed due to cuts to public funding, shrinking services for young people just as the pandemic hit.

Scott-Hayward said that horse riding can also be an antidote to the anxiety that she increasingly sees in children who spend a lot of time on screens and social media.

"When you're on a horse, you can't really think about too much else," she said.