Climate Change: Morocco Convenes Meeting in New York on South-South Cooperation

New York (United Nations) 20/09/2017 (MAP) – Morocco convened on Tuesday in New York a meeting on South-South cooperation with the objective of further strengthening this cooperation in line with the commitments made at COP22 in Marrakech.

The meeting was jointly organized with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and was attended by several public and non-state actors, regional and international organizations and representatives of the private sector and of developing countries.

Speaking on this occasion, Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko, African Union Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, thanked Morocco for this commendable initiative and its efforts to promote South-South cooperation to address the challenges of climate change.

Correia Sacko affirmed that the African Union Commission is ready to support this initiative, given that climate change is a global issue that requires joint efforts, including by countries of the South, which are the most affected ones by this phenomenon.

“We can share experiences, transfer technology and take a collective approach to the impact of climate change,” she told MAP.

For the African official, dialogue and multilateralism have become an absolute necessity to achieve the development and transformation of Africa and to reach the objectives on the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the African Union 2063 Agenda.

Ambassador Amena Yauvoli, COP23 special representative for the Pacific region, said he was “pleasantly surprised” by the relevance of this Moroccan initiative and its great potential to promote cooperation between countries to fight the effects of climate change.

For him, South-South cooperation as advocated by Morocco “can turn these challenges into opportunities”.

“Climate challenges are constantly increasing, and no country can confront them alone,” he noted, stressing that successful experiences such as the Moroccan one are very useful for other countries in the south.

UNFCCC spokesperson Nick Nuttall welcomed Morocco’s initiative, noting that the Moroccan presidency of COP22 contributed to the emergence of a South-South cooperation action in this area.

Nuttall underlined the importance of strengthening cooperation in order to fight the impact of this phenomenon.

In his turn, COP22 President Salaheddine Mezouar said that this meeting shows the importance given by the Kingdom to South-South cooperation, which is at the heart of its international and regional action.

“For Morocco, this dimension of South-South partnership is a vision of strategic importance aimed at providing concrete answers to real problems,” he told reporters.

Morocco’s Secretary of State for Sustainable Development, Nezha El Ouafi, stressed that the Kingdom remains convinced that “multilateralism is the right choice to put into place our actions and move forward.”

This initiative can serve as a Moroccan-African platform to fight counter the effects of climate change, she noted.

Director General of the Moroccan Agency for International Cooperation (AMCI), ambassador Mohamed Methqal underlined the personal commitment of HM King Mohammed VI to South-South cooperation, recalling in this regard the organization last year in Marrakech of the Africa Action Summit in the margins of COP22.

Methqal also pointed out that the AMCI’s actions remain mainly oriented towards the African continent, with almost 80 pc of its initiatives related to African countries.