The first-ever edition of Mediterranean Green Week: Towards a Greener and More Resilient Mediterranean, co-organised by the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) and the OECD, kicked off in Türkiye. Attracting some 150 public officials, private sector representatives, civil society members and scientists, participants convened over three days to exchange views on how to collaboratively tackle the region’s interlinked climate, energy, and environmental crises.

Kick-starting with an opening session with remarks from speakers including UfM Secretary General Nasser Kamel, OECD Istanbul Centre Head Achraf Bouali, United Nations Environment Programme/ Mediterranean Action Plan Coordinator Tatjana Hema, and Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to Türkiye Jurgis Vilcinskas, and a high-level plenary who saw the attendance Walid Fayyad, Minister of Energy and Water of Lebanon and Maša Kociper, State Secretary of the Office of the Prime Minister of Slovenia, attendees broke out into 20 parallel multi-thematic meeting groups.

These touched upon subjects ranging from the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems Nexus to the latest developments in hydrogen and other aspects of the renewable energy transition or green funding mechanisms such as the Blue Mediterranean Partnership, a UfM-backed initiative that aims to mobilise at least €1 billion in sustainable blue economy investments in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean.

Key highlights of the Mediterranean Green Week included the establishment of the UfM working group on Gas, Emissions Abatement and Hydrogen. Approved by all UfM Member States by consensus, the working group will bring together policymakers, industry representatives, regulators, energy stakeholders, traders and shippers, representatives from financing institutions – all from across the Euro-Mediterranean region to develop shared viewpoints and proposals on natural gas, renewable and low-carbon gases as well as clean technologies and emissions abatement issues in order to reinforce the security and sustainability of supply and the regional exchanges. It will be run by Organisation Méditerranéenne de l’Energie et du Climat (OMEC) in coordination with the UfM secretariat and the UfM Co-presidency.

The conference also saw the launch of the Med Alliance of Think Tank on Climate Change (MATTCC), an initiative of a group of like-minded think tanks active in the broader Mediterranean region, coordinated by the Initiative for Climate and Development, a Morocco-based think-do tank; ECCO, an Italy-based climate think tank; and Sefia, a research-oriented environmental NGO from Türkiye.