The researchers are pioneers of Spanish climate solutions

Climate and Ocean: Predictability and Change: Work in Spain since the 2006-2007 climate change crisis, and the impact of climate change on climate change

The National Energy and Climate Plan in Spain was updated in September of last year to include the goal of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by 45% compared with 2005 levels. As of 2023, it has achieved a 39% reduction in net emissions, surpassing the European Union average of 31%.

The Climate and Ocean: Predictability and Change programme in Spain is a research collaboration that is sponsored by the Spanish Climate Change Office. Its recent report1 on the state of the climate in Spain paints a serious picture: the country has already experienced significant warming since the 1960s, and both heatwaves and droughts have become more frequent and intense. Spain’s temperatures are anticipated to increase 1.6 times faster than the global average in the foreseeable future. The sixth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change outlines a scenario in which temperatures could rise by as much as 4 C by the end of the century.

Nature spoke to four Spanish researchers about how their work has been affected by climate change, and their efforts to build resilience moving forwards.

Studies linking the severity of the storm to climate change were done in October. These kinds of storm over Spain’s Mediterranean coast are now 15% wetter, producing a further 7 millimetres of precipitation per day, than past storms. Other studies have reached similar conclusions: a 1.3 °C increase in temperature from pre-industrial levels has doubled the likelihood of such storms.

A law was created after the floods that allows workers to take up to four days of paid leave in case of extreme weather. Employees from theMITECO work in Madrid to manage Spain’s climate adaptation plans.

“We know that practically all of these floods were related to bad urban planning,” says Sara Aagesen, third vice-president of the national government and head of MITECO. Spain’s increasing urban development on floodplains has led to the land being impermeable to rain and the foundations and underground garage being restrict of natural drainage. Aagesen says importance needs to be placed on rebuilding and nature-based adaptation measures. Increasing the permeability of the terrain is one component of this. In Alicante and Barcelona the parks have been designed to hold flood water and aid its gradual drainage.

The ruins of an eleventh-century church were revealed when the water in the Sau reservoir in the province of Barcelona fell to a record low in the winter of 2021, when Catalonia was experiencing some of the worst drought conditions in its history. Andalusia has experienced short periods of intense rainfall in the last few years.

He says his sons don’t live in the same Spain as his parents did. The hot summer months are really long and horrible. This wasn’t normal a few years ago.

Climate Change – What Can You Do Now? Analysing Climate Change in the Mediterranean: The Case for Olive Farms in Spain and Belgium

In the aftermath of the DANA, political mudslinging (some of it literal) has dominated the conversation. The fight between the parties overshadowed the discussion about the problems and what can be done to avoid worse consequences in the future.

Misinformation and hoaxes have been another obstacle to productive discourse. For Aagesen, misinformation is one of the greatest threats facing our society. She believes that networks full of false information can ruin the chance of making well-informed decisions.

My colleagues and I also ran models showing that areas further north will have better conditions for olive trees in the next 20 years, especially in terms of temperature. There are already some olive groves in the northern plateau of Spain, and even in France and Belgium, completely outside the typical cultivation areas. I help farmers to select areas that will be suitable for olive cultivation in the future and suggest alternative crops or cultivars that they can plant in their current groves.

Tourists won’t be as comfortable here as the temperatures continue to rise and will be less likely to visit during cooler months. Sea-level rise and high temperatures cause biodiversity loss and reduce the area of beachfront.

There are some people who think we need more tourists, but that would perpetuate an even system. Furthermore, a person with a big mansion, an aeroplane and a boat has a much larger carbon footprint than does a less wealthy tourist. The government cannot keep building more roads, hotels and other infrastructure because that would use of lot of materials and create a lot of waste. It is not sustainable.

Although people look for solutions in green technologies, such as solar power and electric cars, they still use lots of carbon emissions and can’t find enough mineral resources. Solving climate change has to involve reversing the current socio-economic system. We need to forget about gross domestic product as a metric of social well-being. We need to imagine a society in which the human rights and the biophysical limits of Earth are taken into account. That’s hard work. We will not make it if we don’t do it.

Over the last few years, I have seen some changes in the Mediterranean. Climate change is not the only driving force; there’s also overfishing, habitat destruction and pollution. I’m witnessing things now that I could never have imagined 25 years ago. Climate change is making communities simpler by moving them away from complex and structured ones to simpler ones with just a few fast growing species.