The Mediterranean faces crippling shortages of both water and tourists by the middle of the century.
This is one of the predictions in a report on the effects of global warming due to be approved by the European Commission next week, according to reports in the Financial Times.
The Commission’s environment directorate compiled the report with data from Brussels’ satellite monitoring service and a review of the latest evidence.
It forecasts that Chilly northern Europe could reap big benefits from global warming, where the North Sea coast could become the new Riviera.
But the annual migration of rich northern Europeans to the south could stop – with dramatic consequences for the economies of Spain, Greece and Italy.
A sixth of the world’s tourists – 100m people annually – head south within Europe for their holidays.
While fewer people will die of cold in the north, tens of thousands more will die of heat in the south.
As many as 87,000 extra deaths a year would occur annually by 2071, assuming a three degree centigrade temperature rise.
Even if efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions limit the rise to 2.2 degrees, additional mortalities would be 36,000 a year.
