Morocco Voices Steadfast Commitment to Meet Climate Change Challenges with Stronger Cooperation

Vienna – Morocco’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative in Vienna Azzeddine Farhane highlighted, on Monday, the Kingdom’s steadfast commitment to strengthening cooperation to meet climate change challenges.

During a meeting of the OSCE Mediterranean Partners for Co-operation Group held on the theme “Strengthening cooperation to meet the challenges caused by climate change,” Farhane reviewed the key actions undertaken by Morocco as part of its commitment to support the international community’s efforts to address climate change.

He recalled, in that regard, that Morocco had signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992 and ratified it in 1995. It also hosted in 2001 the 7th Conference of the Parties, COP 7, which made operational the Kyoto Protocol.

Morocco held in November 2016 in Marrakech the Conference of the Parties (COP 22) which was marked by a series of commitments to the implementation of the Paris Agreement, he continued.

At the regional level, Morocco is committed to making African climate issues a priority and advocating climate justice for Africa that suffers from the adverse consequences of climate change while being the continent with the lowest emissions, Farhane said.

HM King Mohammed VI took the initiative to organize the 1st African Action Summit on the sidelines of the COP22 in November 2016. The event was an opportunity for African leaders to coordinate and harmonize their actions in the fight against climate change while seeking the best solutions to the climate challenges faced by the continent.

During the Summit, the diplomat explained, African Heads of State committed, at the initiative of Morocco, to speed up the implementation of initiatives to strengthen Africa’s resilience to climate threats, namely the African Adaptation Initiative, the “Adaptation of African Agriculture -AAA” and the “Security, Stability and Sustainability (3S)” initiative.

According to the ambassador, Morocco believes that stronger cooperation to combat climate change should be achieved through the consistent and coherent implementation of the Paris Agreement, which requires Parties to communicate a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) every five years as of 2020.

The Kingdom began in 2020 the revision of its NDCs, initially submitted to the UNFCCC Secretariat on September 19, 2016, following its accession to the Paris Agreement, Farhane noted, stressing that the effects of climate change require, more than ever, double efforts to promote cooperation between the Mediterranean Partners and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

“We must establish a work program to define a common objective on adaptation and resilience-building in the Mediterranean region and identify collective needs and pragmatic solutions to climate change, including its impact on the future of all humanity,” he concluded.