Morocco Will Pay for Feasibility Studies to Finalize Climate Investment Plan for Sahel: HM the King

Niamey – HM King Mohammed VI announced, Monday in Niamey, that Morocco will pay for the feasibility studies to finalize the Climate Investment Plan for the Sahel region.

In a speech sent to the 1st Conference of the Climate Commission for the Sahel region, which opened the same day in Niamey, the Sovereign underlined the importance of the Climate Investment Plan for the Sahel region and its Priority Regional Program, which will “hence complete the vital projects underway”.

The Commission can count on the Climate Change Competence Center of Morocco (4C Maroc), particularly in terms of capacity building for its members, the monarch pointed out in the speech, which was read out by minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Nasser Bourita.

Set up in 2014, the Center is a national and continental platform of excellence for the development and dissemination of knowledge and best practices on climate change, HM the King said.

The climate threats weighing on the Sahel region are known; they affect people’s daily lives and have an adverse impact on socioeconomic development and regional stability, the Sovereign said, noting that “food shortages, dwindling water supplies and desertification caused by global warming will continue to push our youth into exile, depriving our Continent of part of its crucial human resources.”

For Africans, the fight for climate justice is a fight for access to a better, dignified life and to a bright future, HM the King said, adding that climate justice should not be a mere slogan but rather a requirement for all of us: a requirement to give our populations access to basic resources.

“It is in this way that we shall prevent our youth from succumbing to despair, stopping them, at the same time, from falling prey to criminal and terrorist organizations,” the Sovereign pointed out.

“African youth expects us to open up the wide range of possibilities available and to set our Continent on a course of action that creates opportunities,” HM the King said, noting that “Africa’s future depends on our capacity to imagine new solidarity-based answers, building on a genuine commitment that respects all partners, in the South as well as in the North.”

The Sahel region can become a model of advanced regional integration in economic, environmental, political and human terms, the Sovereign noted, adding that the Climate Commission for the Sahel Region is one of the levers that will enable it to achieve this objective.

“This is where history began, and this is where the region’s future will be decided. Coming generations are, indeed, entitled to a political commitment backed by concerted, solidarity-based action to address climate-related challenges,” the monarch pointed out.

“Rallying stakeholders against the devastating effects of climate change cannot stop at national borders. In fact, it should transcend all rifts,” HM the King said.

African Heads of State launched, at the Africa Action Summit, held in November 2016, in Marrakech, on the sidelines of the COP22, a dynamic process around ambitious, concrete transnational projects led by three Commissions, of which Morocco is a founding partner, the Sovereign said, adding that these are the Congo Basin Commission, chaired by the Republic of the Congo; the Sahel Region Commission, chaired by the Republic of Niger; and the Island States Commission, chaired by the Republic of Seychelles.