Today's Morocco and the World to Come
• The NDM is intended to be a comprehensive and multidimensional reflection that includes the environment among its major strategic pillars. The Kingdom affirms that it has already launched several programs related to the preservation of biodiversity, water resources and the fight against pollution and climate change. The provinces in the South have been particularly targeted in these new measures, in convergence with the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals 2030, placed at the forefront of this development.
• The SSNMD (Special Committee on the New Development Model) acknowledges nonetheless that there are strong pressures on the environment, in particular on water resources and biodiversity. These stresses are notably due to climate change but also to sectoral policies and strategies that do not take into account the imperatives of resource sustainability and environmental balance.
• The weak integration of environmental constraints in public projects and policies has generated strong negative externalities, the cost of which is estimated, according to several national and international assessments, at around 3% of GDP.
• Morocco is in a situation of water stress, which reflects the country's vulnerability to climate change in the face of water uses that do not account for its scarcity. The pricing of drinking water, industrial water or irrigation water does not reflect its real cost and does not encourage the use of alternative resources.
• Climate change could also accelerate the forced displacement of populations from arid rural areas to urban centers, particularly on the coast. This coastline, which hosts the bulk of the country's economic and human activities, is exposed to extreme climate risks.
• Despite the stakes at hand, Morocco's adaptation efforts remain limited, as evidenced by delays in accounting for environmental impacts in public projects and programs, or the embryonic development of the circular economy.
• Taking these trends into account, achieving our country's commitments under the UN agenda for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 would be difficult without a real change in the development trajectory. We still have far too many shortcomings with regard to reducing social inequalities, particularly between territories and between genders. We must also promote a decent economic growth model, particularly for young people and women, and one inclined toward the preservation of biodiversity and the fight against the effects of climate change.
• With the world increasingly sensitive to the consequences of climate change, environmental and ecological standards are becoming central to the production of goods and international trade. They require our country to reduce its carbon footprint to avoid limitations on its export supply. This necessitates investing to produce according to these new standards, and to make it a new comparative advantage and a factor of competitive differentiation. Linked to growing awareness of climate issues, the global energy landscape is also undergoing profound reconfiguration, with the significant rise of green energy and the launch of vast renewable energy programs particularly in Europe through the European Green Deal. This trend reinforces Morocco's priorities in this area, and calls for consolidating the renewable energy bet by investing in projects and technological choices that are suited and have a strong impact on competitiveness.
Morocco Tomorrow
Today's Morocco and the World to Come
• The NDM is intended to be a comprehensive and multidimensional reflection that includes the environment among its major strategic pillars. The Kingdom affirms that it has already launched several programs related to the preservation of biodiversity, water resources and the fight against pollution and climate change. The provinces in the South have been particularly targeted in these new measures, in convergence with the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals 2030, placed at the forefront of this development.
• The SSNMD (Special Committee on the New Development Model) acknowledges nonetheless that there are strong pressures on the environment, in particular on water resources and biodiversity. These stresses are notably due to climate change but also to sectoral policies and strategies that do not take into account the imperatives of resource sustainability and environmental balance.
• The weak integration of environmental constraints in public projects and policies has generated strong negative externalities, the cost of which is estimated, according to several national and international assessments, at around 3% of GDP.
• Morocco is in a situation of water stress, which reflects the country's vulnerability to climate change in the face of water uses that do not account for its scarcity. The pricing of drinking water, industrial water or irrigation water does not reflect its real cost and does not encourage the use of alternative resources.
• Climate change could also accelerate the forced displacement of populations from arid rural areas to urban centers, particularly on the coast. This coastline, which hosts the bulk of the country's economic and human activities, is exposed to extreme climate risks.
• Despite the stakes at hand, Morocco's adaptation efforts remain limited, as evidenced by delays in accounting for environmental impacts in public projects and programs, or the embryonic development of the circular economy.
• Taking these trends into account, achieving our country's commitments under the UN agenda for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 would be difficult without a real change in the development trajectory. We still have far too many shortcomings with regard to reducing social inequalities, particularly between territories and between genders. We must also promote a decent economic growth model, particularly for young people and women, and one inclined toward the preservation of biodiversity and the fight against the effects of climate change.
• With the world increasingly sensitive to the consequences of climate change, environmental and ecological standards are becoming central to the production of goods and international trade. They require our country to reduce its carbon footprint to avoid limitations on its export supply. This necessitates investing to produce according to these new standards, and to make it a new comparative advantage and a factor of competitive differentiation. Linked to growing awareness of climate issues, the global energy landscape is also undergoing profound reconfiguration, with the significant rise of green energy and the launch of vast renewable energy programs particularly in Europe through the European Green Deal. This trend reinforces Morocco's priorities in this area, and calls for consolidating the renewable energy bet by investing in projects and technological choices that are suited and have a strong impact on competitiveness.