Morocco’s Contribution to Global Dynamics for Environmental Protection Highlighted in Nairobi

Nairobi – Secretary of state for Sustainable Development, Nezha El Ouafi, highlighted, Tuesday in Nairobi, Morocco’s contribution, in accordance with the high royal instructions, to the global dynamics for the protection of the environment.

This commitment was reflected in the Kingdom’s accession to the various multilateral and regional environmental agreements and their implementation at the national level, through the launch of several strategic, institutional, legal and operational projects, said El Ouafi, who was speaking at a plenary session of the ministerial segment of the 3rd UN Environment Assembly.

The last decade has been particularly marked by the establishment of a solid foundation enabling the Kingdom to put its development on the track of sustainability, she noted, underlining that enshrining the right to the environment in the 2011 Constitution and the recent adoption by the Council of Ministers (June 2017) of this strategy as a unifying framework for sectoral programs aimed at achieving in a balanced and integrated way the economic, social, environmental and cultural objectives, testifies to the effective consideration of sustainable development in government policy.

She added that this strategy aims at a transition towards a green and inclusive economy by 2030 through a set of political, institutional, legal and financial reforms, undertaken to promote the development of renewable energies, energy efficiency, water economics, sustainable management of solid and liquid waste and resilience to the impacts of climate change.

Several pollution control programs have been launched, recalled El Ouafi, mentioning, in this regard, the national program for waste management and recovery, the national liquid sanitation program, the industrial pollution prevention program and the national air quality improvement program, in addition to a legal arsenal consolidated by the law prohibiting the production and use of plastic bags.

The United Nations Environment Assembly is the world’s highest-level decision-making body on the environment.

It is also an ideal platform for bringing together different stakeholders: governments, civil society/major groups, science and the private sector to enable them to work together to tackle the shared and unprecedented challenges the world is facing.

Ministers of Environment of all countries around the world gather to discuss the status, trends and actions needed to be taken to address pollution in all its forms: air, marine, freshwater, soil and land, including chemicals and waste.

This year’s Assembly will launch the interactive Leadership Dialogues, which will provide participants with an opportunity for high-level engagement and discussion on how to achieve a pollution-free planet.