2006-2016 Report : A regional energy partnership : ideas to take action
A regional energy partnership around a Mediterranean Energy Community
The necessity to anticipate climate change in the Mediterranean
As early as 2009, IPEMED highlighted that anticipating and managing climate change impacts are common issues for Mediterranean countries, thus emphasising the complementarity between both shores and encouraging an urgent and collective action at the regional scale. The study carried out by Stéphane Hallegatte, Samuel Somot and Hypatie Nassopoulos and based on the IPCC report shows that the Mediterranean basin will be a “hot spot” of climate change because of its vulnerability to the consequences of an average rise in temperatures by 2100. The risks induced by climate change will be even higher since the South of the Mediterranean is already facing a certain number of structural issues based on the current economic situation, such as water shortage, basic food products shortage, uncontrolled urban sprawl along coasts, increase in energy demand, etc. This situation raises the issue of fighting against but also adapting to climate change, applying the principles of proximity, solidarity and co-responsibility in the region, while until now Northern and Southern Mediterranean countries were not subject to the same “carbon constraint”.
The opportunity to develop a common energy strategy
IPEMED promotes an integrated approach, based on a global strengthened cooperation between both shores of the Mediterranean. On its energy works the Institute insists on the need for a concerted energy transition in the region and on the opportunities it would bring. Aware of the interdependence and of the energy complementarity binding all Mediterranean countries, IPEMED was in favour, as soon as 2010, of “making of energy the first Euro-Mediterranean common policy”. The goal of the study Towards a Euro-Mediterranean Energy Community, published in 2013, is to show that the implementation of a regional partnership in the energy sector will drive growth in all Mediterranean countries and bring about innovative strategies, favouring the development of new industrial sectors, and thus creating employment. In other words, it was about defining and promoting a new regional energy partnership, which is not restricted to import and export, but which answers the energy security issues of the region’s countries and their common wish for sustainable economic development.
Energy as a lever of Euro-Mediterranean cooperation
For IPEMED, like for most companies consulted between June and October 2013, the implementation of this new partnership requires, among others, the management of a common strategy, a convergence of standards, the reinforcement of interconnections, the development of new industrial cooperations in the energy sector via coproduction, increased partnerships among industrials, universities and research centres, but also the joint development of energy efficiency policies, new large-scale energy production lines, especially renewable energies, etc.
The 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21), in Paris, and the next COP22 in Morocco, can highlight the vision carried by IPEMED since its creation. Climate can and must foster a greater cooperation between Europe, the Mediterranean... and Africa.
“Energy production and supplies in the Mediterranean release a lot of carbon. They are the main source of greenhouse gas emissions. The energy needs of SEMCs are increasing, which requires a prospective vision in order to install new electric infrastructures, via the development of renewable energies. For ten years, IPEMED has been following these evolutions and encouraging the creation of a Mediterranean Energy Community. Going South will enable to build on existing works to find future-oriented solutions for Africa.”
Louis BOISGIBAULT, Professor and Researcher, Sorbonne Universités, Paris Sorbonne, ENEC, Associate expert
Associate experts : Louis Boisgibault, Mourad Preure
Main publications :
- Construire la Méditerranée, « Région méditerranéenne et changement climatique : une nécessaire anticipation », November 2009
- Palimpsestes, n°6, « La contrainte carbone dans la région euro-méditerranéenne », June 2011
- Construire la Méditerranée, « Towards a Euro-Mediterranean Energy community », May 2013
Key figures
17 publications
1,000 actors involved in 25 events among which the COP21
20 videos
To read the entire 2006-2016 report please click here.