Experts from the Universitat de València (UV) have warned this morning at the Botanical Garden that the Mediterranean warms up between two and three times more than oceans in the global level, as satellite images from the last 35 years reveal. At the same time, warming is happening twice faster in inlands and uplands, such as the Penyagolosa, than in the coastline. In fact, June is now climatically considered a summer month, while a noticeable loss of the profitable precipitations is registered in the more interior basins and headwaters of the Segura and Júcar rivers, this last, especially serious, with a 20% reduction of the annual rain.

These are some of the conclusions from the investigations about climate change in the Valencian Community presented today at the Universitat de València's Botanical Garden aiming to commemorate the World Environment Day, with the participation of the consellera for Agriculture, Rural Development, Climate Emergency and Ecological Transition, Mireia Mollà, the regional secretary for Climate Emergency and Ecological Transition, Paula Tuzón, and the city deputy mayor and responsible for Urban Ecology, Sergi Campillo.

The presented studies are part of the collective publication ‘Cambio climático en el Mediterráneo. Procesos, riesgos y políticas’, edited by Tirant lo Blanch and coordinated by the full university professor of Human Geography of the UV Joan Romero, also director at the same time of the Prospect Chair, together with the full university professor of Regional Geographic Analysis of the University of Alacant Jorge Olcina. The presentation of the work has been conducted by the director of the Botanical Garden of the Universitat de València, Jaime Güemes.

Summer starts earlier, finishes later and intensifies

The full university professor of Physical Geography of the UV María José López explains that the average warming of the peninsular Mediterranean is estimated at 1 °C over the last 35 years, “an increase produced fundamentally in June and July, when there is a rise of 2 °C, since the warming rate is of 0,06 °C during the year”. “We observe that summer starts earlier, finishes later and intensifies”, she states.

The consequences of the rise in temperatures are being studied by several scientific fields: it affects rising sea levels, it has influence in ocean circulation patterns, in the distribution of marine species and in the exchange processes of ocean-atmosphere energy which influence meteorological phenomena.

The thermal increase in June is from 2,5 to 3 °C

“June is the most critical month, because it has passed from being climatically a spring month to a summer one. It reaches a thermal increase of until 2’5 °C in the higher inland areas, which is of 3 °C in the case of the maximum temperatures at the Penyagolosa, also in Gúdar and el Maestrat”, argues the full university professor of Physical Geography of the UV María José Estrela. She also points out the potential bioclimatic change and vulnerability of the inland mountainous areas of great environmental value. It is relevant, in Estrela's opinion, “the regression of the surface of the bioclimatic levels located upper (supramediterranean and oromediterranean) and, therefore, the high risk of loss of vegetal species that depend on the climatic characteristics of these levels, such as the natural parks of Penyagolosa, Font Roja and Serra de Mariola.

Regarding precipitations, in a generalised way in the Júcar and Segura basins, the duration of dry spells (the number of consecutive days without raining) is increasing, while the frequency of moderate rain, which is more beneficial, decreases. “These results are extremely important for a correct future planning of water policy and land management in the Valencian Community and Murcia”, Estrela claims.

Loss of thermal comfort and climate change ‘mediterraneasation’

For his part, the full university professor of Regional Geographic Analysis and director of the Climatology Laboratory of the University of Alacant Jorge Olcina has highlighted “the loss of thermal comfort in the Valencian territory, with a noticeable increase in hot nights”. Taking into account the number of changes in the amount and seasonal nature of precipitations and the rise in the superficial sea water temperature, “the development of measures to mitigate and adapt to the climate change in the Valencian territory is urgent so as to reduce risks”, according to Olcina.

The UA full professor, also president of the Asociación Española de Geografía (AGE) talked about the climate change ‘mediterraneasation’, that is, “the alteration that the Mediterranean Sea warming is causing in the climate change process at a global level. It is a regional level alteration which appears as a greater loss of thermal comfort due to the important increase in hot nights and the precipitations effects which are registered in the Spanish Mediterranean coastline, with strong storms that cause downpours of high intensity and detrimental effects”.

The Mediterranean seaboard is already registering a singularity in the global warming process, as Jorge Olcina has insisted: “more thermal discomfort, a more extended heat (daytime and nighttime) from June to September and more concentrated in time rains. And everything, “in relation with the rise in sea water temperatures, which have doubled those of air from 1980 to nowadays (1,3 °C compared to 0,6 °C)”, he has explained.

A law to guide climate policies

The consellera for Agriculture, Rural Development, Climate Emergency and Ecological Transition, Mireia Mollà, has indicated that the results from the study "confirm that the Mediterranean is the climate change epicentre and warn about the danger of climate inaction". "The analysis of the effects cannot lead us to paralysis. We have to provide ourselves with the necessary tools to mitigate a reality that becomes evident day by day", Mollà has claimed. She has defined in the Ley Valenciana de Cambio Climático y Transición Ecológica the framework tool "for being able to guide and succeed in the policies against the climate emergency".

The consellera has referred to this year motto for the World Environment Day (reimagine, recreate, restore) which transposes circularity also to the natural environment. This view is shared with the new regional law, which obliges to keep in mind the climate emergency declaration "in the design, development and application of the different sectorial public policies". Finally, Mireia Mollà has thanked for the purposeful character of the publication: "An open door for making possible the Transition with public policies leading and adapted to the singularities of our territory".

Towards energetic self-supply, water saving and sustainability

The València deputy mayor Sergi Campillo has mentioned “the fundamental role of cities in mitigating and adapting to climate change, bearing in mind that the warming is a reality, as the heat island effect shows”. Because of its location at the western Mediterranean, “València is very sensitive to the rise in temperatures and in the frequency of adverse meteorological phenomena, like heat waves or cold fronts”, as Campillo says.

For this reason, from the capital council “we are working since 2015 on the project of progressing towards a more sustainable city, by means of green infrastructure, as well as improving the landscape, the efficiency in water consumption, implementing draining pavements which supply more irrigation to gardens and promoting the major challenge of creating energetic self-supply communities in order to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels”. Lastly, Campillo has insisted on the duty to preserve the Albufera Natural Park, faced with the increase of salinity in the lake, as well as the stability of beaches, while he has reminded that València will aspire to become European Green Capital in 2024.

Solutions based on nature and biodiversity

The investigator Jaime Güemes, director of the Botanical Garden of the Universitat de València, has reminded that this space “has always been a place of study of the Mediterranean vegetal diversity, flora, vegetation and landscape, the deterioration of which we have seen, with concern, as a consequence of the climate change and the transformation of the territory”. “We have contributed to the search of solutions and we have been a place of debate between profressionals from all disciplines. We are living a critical moment and we need to be very attentive so the adaptation to the climate emergency does not have irreversible consequences in protected areas, nor in the centenary landscape that is part of our culture, our identity and our experience”, he has expounded.

The Botanical Garden works in collaboration with the institutions, the Ayuntamiento de València and the Generalitat Valenciana, to provide scientific knowledge and experience in the conservation of the territory and its biodiversity, in order to find solutions based on nature which help to make greener cities, more biodiverse, more sustainable and, consequently, more habitable.

Tackling the governance gap

The full university professor Joan Romero has taken part in the last place, telematically, and he has stressed several basic topics for facing the climate emergency, such as the metropolitan mobility model from the different Valencian capitals or the need to produce risk mapping. But, especially, he has emphasised the “governance gap”, which he considers limiting in order to progress in sustainable policies.

Eat well and save the climate

Throughout this week in June, the Botanical Garden of the UV is also participating in the initiative València Cambia por el Clima, promoted from the Servicio de Emergencia Climática y Transición Energética of the Ayuntamiento de València and the Fundación València Clima y Energía. In this way, it supports the Come bien y salva el clima campaign, developed in municipal markets with the purpose of promoting local and seasonal products, and food sovereignty, among others. Additionally, on Sunday morning, 6 June, the Botanical will organise educational workshops about ecological vegetable gardens –free with previous registration– and it will have an information service of València Cambia por el Clima. On Saturday 5 June, an open day will take place.

The Botanical Garden of the Universitat de València is hosting during this period of celebration of the World Environment Day the exhibition Tierras y tiempos. Tierras de país y Variaciones de tiempos, an array of paintings from an almost photographic approach to big format works about Valencian landscapes by the creator from Algemesí Esteve Adam, located at the halls Hory de Tramoieres and Estufa freda. The exhibit Semillas de aquí with the project ‘Una semilla en la escuela’ is also located at the terrace of the umbraculum, organised by the Centro de Estudios Rural y de Agricultura Internacional (CERAI) in collaboration with the association for the promotion and conservation of the agrarian biodiversity Semillas de aquí.

The programme dedicated to the environment will end on 16 June with a new session of Botánica desde el sofá, focused this time on the renaturalisation of cities, linked to several actions which have an impact on health and sustainability, as in relation with the Plan Verde y de la Biodiversidad of the Ayuntamiento de València.