Third of Greece ‘could turn into a desert’ as climate change blasts Europe

Areas around the Mediterranean including Greece could turn into dry, sand-blasted deserts as rain dries up due to climate change, experts have warned.

Christos Zerefos, head of the Research Center for Atmospheric Physics and Climatology at the Academy of Athens, told Kathimerini, ‘Around 30 percent of Greece could be threatened with desertification.

Popular holiday resorts such as the Aegean islands and parts of Crete could be under threat, as declining rainfall and extreme weather changes the soil in the areas.

Christos Giannakopoulos of the National Observatory of Athens said that the blame lay with ‘climate change and erroneous human intervention.’

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On Tuesday, United Nations' climate chief Patricia Espinosa told government representatives and U.N. officials meeting in Bonn, Germany, they were falling far short of what was needed to reduce emissions by 45 percent by 2030 to limit global warming.

However, some countries have announced new targets, such as Britain's goal to reach net zero emissions by 2050 and Chile's plan to become carbon neutral by 2050 and shut all coal plants by 2040.

Currently, five countries - including India and Costa Rica - have targets compatible with limiting a temperature rise to 2C, the Climate Action Tracker report said.

Ten more - including Brazil, Canada, the European Union, Australia and New Zealand - have plans compatible with a 3C limit; nine more - including Japan, China and Chile - have targets compatible with a 4C limit.

Five countries - Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Ukraine and the United States - have targets compatible with a world experiencing temperature rise above 4C, the report said.

Governments have been urged to put forward new plans to increase efforts to combat climate change at a United Nations summit this September in New York.