Human adaptation and mitigation responses to climate change may create additional threats to MTEs. MTEs have dry summers by definition, posing a challenge for the year-round supply of water to growing human populations and agriculture. With recent major droughts in all MTEs , there is increasing reliance on groundwater for the bulk of the water supply . The majority of groundwater systems have exceeded or are rapidly approaching their environmental flow limits , threatening human populations and ecosystems that depend on these systems for their persistence through unfavourable climatic conditions . Similarly, much of the MTEs are open shrublands and grasslands and proposed extensive tree-planting to sequester atmospheric CO2 could result in a loss of biodiversity and threaten water security .
IPCC
Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
IPCC Report