Climate change impacts on water resources in the Iberian Peninsula
- Autores: Filipe Duarte Santos
- Localización: X Congresso Ibérico de Gestão e Planeamento da Água: 20 Anos de continuidade de uma nova cultura da água. Fluxos de água, fluxos de vida / João Luís Mendes Pedroso de Lima (ed. lit.), Francesc La Roca Cervigón (ed. lit.), 2018, ISBN 978-84-944788-5-7, págs. 1-5
- Idioma: inglés
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Resumen
One of the most important drivers of climate change is the variation in the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases which has been increasing since the Industrial Revolution due to emissions from various human activities, especially the intensive use of fossil fuels and land use changes. Annual anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions have been increasing and are projected to continue to increase up to 2040 at a pace that makes it very unlikely to fulfill the Paris Agreement goal of staying below an increase of 2º C in the global averaged atmospheric temperature, relative to pre-industrial times. The Mediterranean Region is considered to be a climate change hotspot in view of the intensity of the impacts on economic activity and human well-being, taking into account especially the impacts on the socioeconomic sectors of water resources, agriculture, forests and biodiversity. The causes leading to the particularly strong climate change effects in the Mediterranean are briefly discussed. Present and future climate change impacts on the Iberian Peninsula water resources are presented and discussed. It is argued that, at present, civil society and policy makers are not fully prepared to adopt the adaptation measures that would be adequate and sufficiently robust to address the impacts associated with high-end climate scenarios that do not comply with the Paris Agreement.
