Joint planning, monitoring and observation, improvement of knowledge and awareness in the face of risks and threats of Climate Change in the Macaronesia

Details

Acronym: PLANCLIMAC
Reference: MAC2/3.5b/244
Partners:Regional Environment Vice-Ministry of the Canary Islands (Viceconsejería de Medio Ambiente del Gobierno de Canarias) (Main beneficiary), Azores Regional Government for the Environment, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources of Madeira, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), University of La Laguna (ULL), Institute of Technology and Renewable Energies, SA (ITER), Technological Institute of Canary Islands (ITC) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment of the Republic of Cape Verde.
Duration: 2019-2022 (36 months)
Budget: 1.815.199,85 €
Co-Financing:  INTERREG Madeira-Azores-Canarias Territorial Cooperation Programme (MAC) 2014-2020. 2nd Call. Axis 3 – Promote the adaptation to climate change and the prevention and risk management.

Project overview

Adaptation to climate change must be understood as a continuous process, which emerges as an anticipated response to a modification of various sectors and earth systems due to changes in the climate and its natural instability. Therefore, when we speak of a time horizon, this is defined by the final levels of stabilization of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

For this reason, the need arises to create an entity that produces updated information on the variability of our ecosystems and territories, which allows us to generate dynamic action plans in accordance with the constant changes that the planet is undergoing in general, and finally, with a character of durability over time.

The main goal of the PLANCLIMAC project is to take advantage of the scientific knowledge and technological capacity of the MAC Region to provide tools that facilitate the application of adaptation policies and preparation for the natural risks inherents in climate change.

The planned actions are developed in the Canary Islands, Madeira, the Azores and Cape Verde. The project manages to generate an entity superior to the regional one of each territory, covering a larger area and including African localities. However, due to the characteristics of the project that combines mitigation and adaptation actions regarding the climate change. Its impact reaches both, the Macaronesia and the rest of the world’s population.

Specific objetives:

  • Specific objetive 1 (SO1): Creating an independent entity called the “Macaronesia Climate Change Observatory”, which will take corrective and preventive measures to provide management tools for natural risks caused by climate change in the Macaronesian region.
  • Specific objetive 2 (SO2): Improving the knowledge of climate change indicators, physical-chemical, biological and anthropogenic that alert us to adverse natural phenomena.
  • Specific objetive 3 (SO3): Raising awareness among the population and socio-economic agents in the MAC region of the risks associated to Climate Change through a programme of training, exchange of experiences and implementation of a plan for adaptation to Climate Change.

Actividades:
S.O. 1: Creating an independent entity called the “Macaronesia Climate Change Observatory”, which will take corrective and preventive measures to provide management tools for natural risks caused by climate change in the Macaronesian region.

  • Activity 2.1.1:  Setting up the Macaronesia Climate Change Observatory. Definition of committees and their functions. Establishing links within entities with similar characteristics that aim to achieve the same general objective.
  • Activity 2.1.2: Macaronesian Climate Change Inventory: Creating a database, of public access, with all the information of the MAC Region related to studies, research thesis, informative materials, etc. on the climate change, elaborated in the last 10 years
  • Activity 2.1.3: Effect of the climate change on desertification. Analysing the causes and generating processes of this phenomenon. Flood risk management in relation to studies of the effects of climate change on floods in coastal areas and streams.

S.O. 2: Improving the knowledge of climate change indicators, physical-chemical, biological and anthropogenic that alert us to adverse natural phenomena.

  • Activity 2.2.1: Configuration of the WRF model in each of the regions of interest and obtaining the climate projections throughout the 21st century using the climate conditions of the Canary Islands.
  • Activity 2.2.2: Affections to the climate and its effects on the Macaronesian marine environment. Implementation of an observation network and execution of oceanographic campaigns to determine values and variables in physical-chemical indicators and their impacts on organisms and their ecosystems.
  • Activity 2.2.3: Analysis of recent changes in the coastline and their environmental consequences. Diagnosis on the origin of problems through the modeling of “type basins”. Evaluation of the incidence of climate change on the analysed coast and proposal of measures to mitigate its adverse effects.

S.O. 3: Raising awareness among the population and socio-economic agents in the MAC region of the risks associated to climate change through a programme of training, exchange of experiences and implementation of a plan for adaptation to climate change.

  • Activity 2.3.1:  PLANCLIMAC programme for awareness, dissemination and exchange of experiences.
  • Activity 2.3.2: Technical training on adaptation to climate change in the Macaronesia.