GLASGOW, Scotland — Cyprus’ president says his government is working with neighboring countries to come up with a regional action plan aimed at tackling climate change in the east Mediterranean and the Middle East.

Nicos Anastasiades told the U.N. climate conference in Glasgow on Tuesday that 240 scientists from the Middle East and Europe are already working to prepare policy recommendations, measures and “specific solutions” for the region that has been classified a “global climate change hot-spot.”

Anastasiades said in the next few months, a meeting of regional ministers will precede a leaders’ summit that will endorse the action plan and set up monitoring mechanisms to ensure “implementation of our commitments.”

Cyprus hosted a regional climate change conference last month that underscored the need for a speedy switch in the Middle East and the east Mediterranean from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources because greenhouse gas emissions are helping to drive up regional temperatures faster than in many other inhabited parts of the world.