Still think climate change is something that happens elsewhere? Ask Agron from Peshkopi, who just lost his cherries — famous across the region for their sweetness — because a spring storm wiped out the flower buds before they could become fruit. Ask the fisherman on the Riviera who'll tell you fish is now "as rare as snow in summer." Ask little Deon, twelve years old, who walked the Adriatic shore this summer and found it carpeted in jellyfish — more than anyone in his family had ever seen — because warmer water is their paradise. Ask any firefighter, who'll tell you the season is longer, hotter, and angrier than anything they trained for.

Or ask me. I watched the football pitch where my son played as a child get swallowed by the sea. Bit by bit, fifteen years, until there was nothing left.

I could go on. Instead, let me tell you what Albania is doing about it.

The Numbers Are Not Abstract

Albania is a country of 2.4 million people that has contributed almost nothing to global carbon emissions — and is paying a price that feels deeply unfair. 

By mid-century, temperatures may rise by up to 2°C, with annual maximum temperatures increasing by up to 2.8°C.

Precipitation will fall by 6%, while heavy rainfall events could increase by around 16 days per year. 

Sea levels along the Albanian coast will rise 30 centimetres. 

Heatwaves will multiply to four significant events per year. Over the past three decades, floods and extreme events have already cost the country an estimated USD 2.3 billion — nearly a tenth of its entire GDP.

The people hit hardest are those who can least afford it: elderly rural communities left behind by urbanization, farmers with no insurance, coastal families with nowhere to move, a generation of young people facing 19% unemployment in an economy increasingly disrupted by the climate.