The World Climate Summit (COP22) that is being held in Marrakech, aims to limit 2 degrees Celsius the increase in the average temperature of the planet. To get it, all countries that signed the Paris Agreement must have an active participation so that they can keep abreast of international movements and debates, and enrich the draft Law on Climate Change that is being drafted.
Thus, despite the fact that Spain signed the Agreement but will not ratify it until 2017, The Balearic Islands are already present at COP 22.
Joan Groizard, general director of Energia i Canvi Climàtic (Energy and Climate Change), is the representative of the Balearic community. The Government also said that they are working for »generate synergies and connect with other regions and islands to share reflections, concerns and common lines of action».
Effects of climate change in the Balearic Islands
The Balearic Islands is an archipelago in which, due to its geographical location, rainfall is generally low. The storms that enter through the northwest of the country tend to reach the islands very worn out, which are in the middle of an almost completely closed sea, that is, in a sea that is fed only by the Atlantic water that passes through the Strait of Gibraltar.
As the planet warms, on the islands we are seeing how summer lengthens more and more and autumn almost disappears. To this must be added the less and less rain, which is a very serious problem if we take into account that a large part of their income comes from tourism. As the meteorologist Agustí Jansà explains in a interview for the newspaper El Mundo, in the Balearic Islands the temperature has risen 2 degrees in 40 years, and that, although it seems little, is actually a lot.
With regard to sea level rise, it could climb between 30 centimeters and one meter by the end of the century, so the beaches would recede.
For all these reasons, COP 22 is very important, since It is time to specify how the commitments will be made effective to fight climate change.