Conference Agenda

Climate change adaptation is an urgent and multidimensional challenge across Mediterranean countries, which are among the most exposed globally to rising temperatures, water scarcity, coastal risks, agricultural stress and ecosystem degradation. The Mediterranean represents a unique “laboratory” of institutional diversity, socioeconomic heterogeneity and policy experimentation, spanning EU Member States, neighboring countries and regions with markedly different governance capacities. This session will explore how adaptation responses are being designed and implemented across key sectors, with particular attention to economic incentives, governance arrangements and distributional consequences. By bringing together leading scholars and practitioners from across the Mediterranean, the session aims to identify common challenges, successful strategies and persistent gaps in adaptation policy, and to draw lessons that are relevant both within the region and for other climate-vulnerable contexts worldwide. The session can be of interest to many non-Mediterranean environmental and resource economists as well, as it engages with core analytical themes such as the valuation of climate impacts, the design of policy instruments under uncertainty, strategic interactions in adaptation, and the integration of adaptation into natural resource management and long-term development pathways.