15% of deaths attributable to environmental factors, with over 228,000 deaths caused by air pollution alone, 730 tons of plastic dumped into the sea every year and biodiversity at risk, in a region that is warming up 20% faster than the global average .
It is the photograph of the conditions of the Mare Nostrum basin that emerges from the report on the state of the environment and development in the Mediterranean by Unep, the United Nations environment agency, presented in the European Green Week.
If the course is not reversed, is the warning contained in the UNEP document, "irreversible damage" is risked.
Now in its third edition since 2005, the Unep report updates a worrying picture in which increasing social inequality, loss of biodiversity with over a thousand exotic species that threaten the survival of local ones, climate change and pressure on ecosystems could lead to irreversible environmental damage in the basin .
The document must be a "wake-up call for the political leaders" of the countries bordering the Mare Nostrum, said Gaetano Leone, the coordinator of the UNEP Mediterranean Action Plan.
"Progress has been made, but the results have not been enough," warned François Berqui, director of Plan Bleu, who edited the report.
Unep recommends a series of actions to reverse the trend, such as stopping subsidies to non-renewable energy and water extraction, with more power for local administrators to apply international protocols.