Development

Abstract

Sustainable development seeks to address the needs of current and future generations with the objective of increasing well-being by balancing economic, social and environmental dimensions. Current unsustainable development patterns, such as poverty, increasing population pressure, agricultural intensification, land degradation, and air, land, rivers and ocean pollution, will be further exacerbated by climate change impacts. Environmental and climate change impacts are likely to have an effect on all economic sectors in the Mediterranean Basin, increasing production challenges and costs, affecting low-income cohorts increasingly disproportionally, and generally delaying the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Rising temperatures, with more intense and longer heatwaves, and decreasing rainfall patterns, can exert a further strain on important sectors, such as agriculture and tourism, which represent important cultural, economic and heritage assets for Mediterranean economies and societies. The existence of poverty, inequalities and gender imbalances relate both directly and indirectly to the challenges faced by Mediterranean countries in achieving the SDGs, with current and predicted environmental and climate change impacts threatening the progress made to date in many areas of the Mediterranean Basin. To address these challenges, a new approach to development must be sought in order to eliminate poverty, sustain economic growth and ensure social protection, while safeguarding environmental standards and integrating mainstream climate change adaptation into policy making. The growing challenges of environmental and climate change impacts on economies and societies require an enhanced institutional response, at a local, national and international level. Effective preventive and restorative policies, including the promotion of context-specific climate change mitigation and adaptation measures, and economic instruments encouraging behavioral changes, can ensure longterm sustainable development in the Mediterranean Basin.