The following article was co-written by IMAL director Iskander Erzini Vernoit with Bouzekri Razi, director at the Ministry of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development - Kingdom of Morocco, appearing in a special COP publication by the Global Governance Program at Toronto. The publication also includes pieces by Prime Minister Modi of India and President Lula of Brazil, as well as by the persons leading UN Climate Change, UNDP, the International Monetary Fund and The World Bank, among others.
Morocco’s commitment to climate action
The Kingdom of Morocco has long been considered a leader in climate action, historically ranked amongst the highest for its ambition. Morocco’s recent efforts reflect a deepening of Morocco’s longstanding commitment to the fight against climate change — notably, its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), updated in 2021, outlines a clear roadmap for national efforts on climate change, in mitigation and adaptation, with finance at its heart.
Morocco’s NDC emphasizes the Kingdom’s commitment to renewable energy and decarbonization. Morocco’s NDC aims to achieve 52% of electricity generation from renewable sources by 2030. This is an enhancement of past ambitions. Under the farsighted vision of His Majesty King Mohamed VI, investment in renewable energy, especially solar and wind, has not only reduced Morocco’s dependence on fossil fuels from foreign sources, but has also created new economic opportunities and improved energy access for rural communities. Morocco’s pioneering efforts on renewable energy have been a source of inspiration to other countries, dating back over fifteen years.
Morocco’s NDC also emphasizes the imperative of adaptation and improving resilience to growing climate change impacts. Morocco, liable to drought and desertification as well as flooding, would be considered a particularly vulnerable country under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and has suffered extreme impacts in recent years. The NDC outlines a range of adaptation plans, notably regarding agriculture and water resources, but also in fisheries and aquaculture, forestry, the health sector, housing, and the most vulnerable environments and ecosystems: oases, coastlines, and mountains. The NDC notes that, absent adaptation, vulnerabilities will hinder Morocco’s achievement of the wider Sustainable Development Goals.
NDCs conditioned on scaling finance
Finance is a core requirement of any national effort to implement mitigation and adaptation measures — and indeed, finance is a core part of Morocco’s NDC. Morocco's NDC commits unconditionally to reduce emissions 18.3% by 2030 relative to a business-as-usual scenario, based on 34 unconditional national measures, but it also commits to reduce as much as 45.5% by 2030 conditional upon international climate finance for a
further 27 conditional measures.
The NDC estimates that $38.8 billion USD will be required to fully achieve its mitigation targets. Of this, $21.5 billion USD is required as international climate finance for the conditional aims.
Morocco’s national efforts on finance
Since the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015, Morocco has worked to strengthen its domestic frameworks for climate finance, in addition to efforts at international levels. A notable milestone was Morocco’s adoption in 2016 of its “Roadmap for aligning the financial sector with sustainable development challenges” .
In the absence of international support, Morocco is already spending considerable sums of
domestic public money on losses and damages from climate change. In recent years, in
response to the worst drought in decades, Morocco spent the equivalent of approximately $1 billion USD in public funds, which might otherwise have been deployed for mitigation or
adaptation or other ends.
Morocco’s Ministry of Economy and Finance, in collaboration with the Ministry of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development, is undertaking efforts to ensure that the state’s budget and fiscal measures increasingly integrate climate considerations.
Looking ahead, Morocco aims to take the burden off state-led financing by increasing private finance where possible in climate-related areas with investment potential, such as energy transition, through expanded partnership with the private sector. This approach is reflected in Morocco’s New Model for Development, which dates to 2021.
Indeed, ahead of COP29, Morocco has launched a new national Strategy for the Development of Climate Finance, aiming to catalyze private investments, with strategic axes including but not limited to market transparency, awareness-raising, investment-oriented solutions for risk-sharing, climate-related financial risk management, capacity building, disclosures, and public policy and regulation.
Toward an increase in provision of international finance
At the international level, our country has benefited from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) as well as other funds and bilateral financing. This has enabled Morocco to pursue high-impact initiatives in renewable energy and resilience-building, such as the Noor Solar Complex and adaptation projects in rural areas.
However, with $21.5 billion USD required to meet the conditional commitments, Morocco’s NDC highlights the importance of international cooperation in addressing the global climate crisis. In this context, Morocco continues to advocate for increasing international climate finance from developed countries to developing countries.
Since COP26 in Glasgow, Morocco has consistently and actively engaged in the process to develop the New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance, to ensure that the new Goal responds to the needs and priorities of Morocco and other developing countries, particularly in terms of provision of the concessional and grant-based public finance for the NDCs.
A turning point for the Paris Agreement at COP29
Whatever the outcome at COP29, it will mark a turning point in the life of the Paris Agreement.
Adopted at COP21 in 2015, the Paris Agreement saw a rapid entry into force on the eve of
COP22 in Marrakech, in 2016. This swift international action represented a diplomatic victory at the time, reflecting the support for enhanced global action via Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
However, it was understood that timely implementation of these NDCs would necessitate much greater international public finance support from the developed countries to developing countries. The reality across many developing countries, including Morocco, is that despite best efforts nationally to mobilize finance from the private sector and other sources, new provision of international public finance remains required for NDC implementation.
The decision on a new finance goal at COP29 will therefore be a clear test of the world’s
commitment to the Paris Agreement.