Morocco Committed to Protect Africa from Climate Threats – Upper House Speaker –

Speaker of the House of Councilors (Upper House), Enaam Mayara, reaffirmed, Wednesday in Dubai, Morocco’s commitment to effectively contribute to the continental momentum aimed at protecting Africa from climate threats and defend the rights of future generations to development and progress.    In a speech delivered at the opening ceremony of the parliamentary meeting held on the sidelines of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP-28), Mayara stressed that Africa is today at the heart of climate change tragedies, despite being the continent that emits the least greenhouse gases, considering that this situation compromises the continent’s prospects for progress and development and seriously threatens the fundamental rights of tens of millions of Africans.    According to African Union estimates, around 118 million people living in extreme poverty will face drought, floods and extreme heat by 2030 if appropriate measures are not taken to address them, he noted, emphasizing that this situation would greatly affect peace and security on the continent and would favor new phenomena, in particular climate displacement.    Mayara called for a global plan to protect Africa from climate risks and to provide the necessary funds for some African countries, especially since the sub-Saharan African region will have, according to some forecasts, to spend between 2% and 3% of its GDP per year to deal with the consequences of climate change.    In this regard, he underlined that the fight against climate change occupies a central place in the development vision of the Kingdom providing for the gradual transition to an ambitious national development model less dependent on polluting energies, through the implementation of anticipatory policies and measures aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and combating global warming, in addition to the adoption of an energy mix based on solar, wind and marine energies.    Morocco, under the wise leadership of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, has been able, thanks to effective public policies and major investments in the field of alternative energies, to reach today a share of renewable energy in the electrical capacity mix at 37%, Mayara pointed out, adding that this indicator confirms the Kingdom’s capacity to increase the share of renewable energies to 52% by 2030 and to achieve the broader objective of zero carbon by 2050.    All these orientations have allowed Morocco to be among the ten best successful international experiences in the ranking of the 2023 Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI), he concluded.