In this study, we conducted, for the first time, an extensive climate change impact assessment of bee pollinators in the Aegean Islands, Greece, a regional bee hotspot in the Mediterranean. We located the current biodiversity and future extinction hotspots in the region and identified areas in urgent need for conservation prioritization, by undertaking an overlap analysis with the established protected areas network in Greece. Most bee species occurring in the archipelago are expected to face severe range contractions and there is evidence of an underlying extinction debt in the study area. Our work could serve as the baseline for the integration of a rather neglected, yet extremely economically and ecologically important taxonomic group, the bees, in the systematic conservation planning in the archipelago.Pollinators’ climate change impact assessments focus mainly on mainland regions. Thus, we are unaware how island species might fare in a rapidly changing world. This is even more pressing in the Mediterranean Basin, a global biodiversity hotspot. In Greece, a regional pollinator hotspot, climate change research is in its infancy and the insect Wallacean shortfall still remains unaddressed. In a species distribution modelling framework, we used the most comprehensive occurrence database for bees in Greece to locate the bee species richness hotspots in the Aegean, and investigated whether these might shift in the future due to climate change and assessed the Natura 2000 protected areas network effectiveness. Range contractions are anticipated for most taxa, becoming more …