In the Mediterranean Basin, there is a progressive adoption of clean production industrial policy motivated by both economical and environmental factors. This clean production policy requires an integrated environmental approach aiming at reducing pollution, increasing energy, water and other resource efficiency, and decreasing flux of waste.
In the north-western part of the Mediterranean, the industry has gradually been replacing agriculture as the primary economic sector since the XIXth century. Today, all this part of the basin is largely industrialized, and the trend has extended to North Africa, the Balkans and the Middle-east, where industrialization is proceeding at a varying pace – depending on countries. Although in North-west Mediterranean countries industry has already been replaced by services (incl. tourism) as the main economic sector, its presence in the landscape remains well established, e.g. around the ports of the big cities (Marseille, Barcelona, Genova…).
