During COP 28, Morocco launched its National Low Carbon Strategy 2050, also referred to as Morocco's "quantitative" LT-LEDS, with the aim of achieving a net-zero carbon economy by 2050.
“Morocco, through its efforts, positions itself among the few countries globally that have undertaken such a bottom-up, inclusive and thorough approach to charting a low-carbon trajectory by 2050.” Fatou Ndoye - Deputy Regional Director at UNEP's Africa Office.
The strategy, developed through a participatory and inclusive process, outlines concrete targets and actions that Morocco will take to cut greenhouse gas emissions across 7 key sectors of the economy:
1️⃣ Energy production
2️⃣ Buildings
3️⃣ Industry
4️⃣ Transport
5️⃣ Agriculture
6️⃣ Forests and land use
7️⃣ Waste
The strategy builds upon Morocco's qualitative LT-LEDS (2021), which articulates a collective vision for the country by 2050 (Vision Maroc 2050). Beginning in 2022, and with support from the French Development Agency, the 2050 Pathways Platform, and SDG Action, Morocco initiated a quantitative modeling exercise. This exercise sought to formulate various scenarios and corresponding sectoral decarbonization plans, outlining the implications of a reference scenario, an enhanced NDC and a Net Zero scenario, using the Low Emissions Analysis Platform (LEAP) software.
To establish the enhanced NDC scenario, the NDC underwent updates incorporating the latest governmental plans across various sectors while the Net Zero emission scenario was developed by combining governmental plans and implementing necessary additional measures, extensively discussed with Moroccan stakeholders. The resulting scenarios were shared with a broad spectrum of stakeholders to ensure consensus on the assumptions underpinning the ambitious measures and targets (source: Enerdata).
Through the NDC Action project, UNEP and the UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre provided support for the overarching institutional, legislative, and regulatory measures necessary to align with Morocco's net-zero objectives, along with aspects related to the institutional governance framework for LT-LEDS implementation. The focus of UNEP’s support will now shift to the development of an investment plan and financing mobilisation strategy for the operationalisation of the LT-LEDS.
The quantitative LT-LEDS will play a pivotal role in shaping Morocco's next NDC for submission in 2025.
See the recording of the launch at COP 28 here.
