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United Nations Environmental Program
Climate Change and Renewable Energy
Morocco
Karly Geisse and Kathleen Hannah
Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School
Position Paper for the United Nations Environmental Program
I. Climate Change
The conviction held by Morocco is that the damage continuously inflicted on the earth’s
environment is an issue that cannot wait, but needs to be addressed with all due haste. The main
environmental threats to Morocco at present are agriculture, and a water deficiency. Morocco has
already created a Conseil National se l’Environnement as well as other organizations to combat the
growing global warming issues, but Morocco has neither the funds nor the capabilities to handle the
severe climate changes inflicted and therefore wishes to see this committee provide support for
nations who wish to help prevent climate change, but don’t have the financial or raw material means
to do so.
Due to the lack of industrial and domestic wastewater treatment, Morocco is expected to experience
a severe water deficit by 2020. The quality of the drinking water is deteriorating because of the
industrial and agricultural pollution rate. Because of the lack of appropriate water, the soil is
degrading, and the farmers have no agriculture practices that they can use to improve their fields.
Morocco’s 1995 Environmental Strategy focused on air, water, solid waste, and soil as its top
priorities. Of all the solid waste output by thirteen million Moroccans, only five percent is being
treated. However, the basic and essential causes of the slow destruction of the environment are the
climate changes occurring in almost all of Northern Africa. In a paper presented to the United
Nations Environmental Program by Taha Balafrej as well as the Ministry of Regional Development,
Water, and the Environment, because Morocco is so vulnerable to climate change, its average
rainfall would drop by ten to fifteen percent per year. To the agricultural industry in particular, this
means the destruction of the entire way of life. However, because of limited funding and resources,
Morocco has found it difficult to implement environmental programs for themselves.
Through the addition of Mohamed El Yazghi, Minister of Regional Development, Water, and the
Environment, Morocco has signed a Joint Statement on Environmental Cooperation, meaning that
this nation is now working with the United States as well as the UN to improve the level of
awareness of the environmental issues, plans to improve the protections and conservation of natural
resources (namely water) and implementing projects against deforestation and erosion. Morocco
has ratified the UNFCCC- United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and taken the
responsibility of producing a portfolio of Clean Development Mechanism (CMD) project plans that
will hopefully lead to the reduction of the output of greenhouse gases, to control energy use, and
promote renewable energy sources.
Morocco believes that although progress is under way for the reduction of greenhouse gases, as well
as other possible programs to preserve the environment, there is still much to be done. Morocco
has agreed to support any proposal made by the IPCCC to create solutions to the problems that
global warming is inflicting. Morocco was also one of the first countries to pledge support for the
Kyoto Protocol, which is a program dedicated to fighting and conquering global warming through
convincing businesses, individuals, and cities to act against climate change.
Morocco takes the plight of the lack of natural resources and rise of global warming very seriously.
There is a special environment ministry headed by Minister Yazghi, and a total of fifteen
organizations within the department, although varying in effectiveness and government
involvement. There are five ministries dealing with water resources alone.
United Nations Environmental Program
Climate Change and Renewable Energy
Morocco
Karly Geisse and Kathleen Hannah
Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School
The United Nations could help Moroccan efforts by helping financially to support some of the plans
designed to adapt the country to the effects of climate change, as well as helping to educate the
Moroccan people on the dangers of some of the practices they have maintained out of ignorance
(this can be done by sending specialists, professionals, technicians, etc.) and organizing joint
conferences, meetings, and collaborations to share any new information regarding ways to help
waylay global warming.
Through working with the Sous- Secrérariat d’Etat auprès du Ministère de l’Intérieur chargè de la
Protection de l’Environnement, the UN can radically help the need for water conservation and the
agriculture industry, whether it be by donating funds for the Moroccan plans concerning CMD, or by
helping to change the attitude of the need for laws to protect the environment (at the present time
there are none in place.)
The Environment is a world issue, therefore the only way for the world to conquer it is for all
countries to work together, and maybe through the efforts of everyone, the environment will not be
an eventual danger to conserve, but a state of harmony between people and land.
United Nations Environmental Program
Climate Change and Renewable Energy
Morocco
Karly Geisse and Kathleen Hannah
Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School
II. Renewable Energy
According to the French-based International Energy Agency, renewable energy includes natural resources
such as sunlight, wind, tides, geothermal heat and plant matter used as fuel. Wind, solar and marine energy
together produce less than one percent of total world energy demand, the Energy Agency reports. Most
renewable energy is in the form of biomass, such as wood burned as fuel. Hydropower is the next largest
source, providing two to three percent, and modern technologies like geothermal, wind, solar, and marine
energy together produce less than one percent of total world energy demand.
Despite the rapid expansion of the United Nations Environmental Programme’s role in the energy sectors of
developing and industrialized economies, modern renewable energy technologies account for less than five
percent of the global power sector capacity. The renewable energy work of the energy branch is directed
primarily at uncovering innovative solutions to constraints, and nurturing the replication of best practices.
This work is multi-dimensional in scope, involving the coordinated deployment of several interventions
including: channeling services and capital resources for investment in small and medium energy enterprises;
supporting research and development efforts that enhance knowledge about the environmental and
sustainability benefits of investments in renewable energy markets and industries; and building capacity of
energy and development policy-makers in the design and deployment of renewable-friendly policies.
Amal Haddouche, General Director of the Center for Renewable Energies Development, says Morocco aims
to produce a fifth of its electricity from renewable energies by 2012 and consume 10 percent of its energy
from those resources by that date. Morocco has enormous potential for the energy expansion for solar
energy 4.7 – 5.7 kWh/day (2800 hours/year in the North, more than 3000 hours/year in the South of
Morocco). In addition to solar energy, Morocco has an excellent wind energy potential, mainly in the North
and in the South with an annual average between seven miles per second and 8.5 miles per second in the
South and between eight miles per second and eleven miles per second in the North, especially in the
Atlantic coastal regions. According to the Brussels-based Global Energy Wind Council, Morocco’s installed
wind power capacity in megawatts ranks twenty seventh globally.
Morocco will help five hundred young entrepreneurs from rural areas set up 'Energy Shops' to sell solar
panels and water heaters, improved ovens and other equipment, distribute butane gas, and promote
awareness of rural energy programs. The aim is to improve rural access to renewable and clean energy and
create a regulatory and financial framework, with public and private sector support, so the shops can be
spark plugs for rural development. The four-year initiative will begin with feasibility studies for potential store
locations that local communities will choose. "Our aim is to bring this new concept to scale throughout the
country, thus promoting employment and local expertise," said Minister of Energy and Mining Mohammed
Boutaleb. According to UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown, who participated in the launch while in
Morocco recently for an international conference, five small energy businesses would make no difference
and fifty would be a start, "but five hundred businesses will make a real difference in alleviating poverty
through the development of renewable energy," he said. Partners with UNDP in the program include the
Ministry of Energy and Mining, the Centre for the Development of Renewable Energy (CDER), the National
Electricity Office, the Agency for Socio-Economic Development of the Northern Provinces, the Moroccan
Association of Private Solar and Wind Energy, the Near East Foundation, Spanish Cooperation (Junta de
Andalucia), local communities, and national and local civil society organizations. Negotiations are underway
with the National Employment Agency and the solar power and gas industries to develop further business
opportunities with the shops. The program's budget is $1.5 million, for which is UNDP contributing $200,000.