Climate change: Rabat-Salé-Kénitra concocts a Territorial Climate Plan

The region of Rabat-Salé-Kénitra will soon have its Plan Climat territorial (PCT). This roadmap will set the territory’s climate objectives and define an action program to achieve them. The draft Plan will contain mitigation measures, aimed at limiting the impact of the climate on the territory, by reducing emissions from greenhouse gas (GES) in addition to adaptation actions. These will focus on reducing the vulnerability of the territory in a context where the impacts of climate change can no longer be entirely avoided, even with significant mitigation efforts. It will also involve identifying the predictable impacts of climate change that could occur on a regional scale, on populations, natural resources and socio-economic activities.

The Plan will understand how climate change is already taken into consideration by stakeholders in the target region and will identify the adaptation and mitigation needs felt by populations, but not met due to lack of resources. The process will also result in the development of a portfolio of priority sectoral adaptation and mitigation projects, including pilot demonstration projects. The PCT will also include institutional and governance measures and communication and awareness-raising actions. It will contribute to strengthening the capacities of regional and local actors in terms of the fight against climate change and to improving knowledge management and research and development actions.

Let us recall that Morocco is committed to a proactive and responsible approach to combating the effects of climate change and strengthening resilience, while paying particular attention to the planning of climate action at the national and territorial levels. Thus, the National Climate Plan has enabled the country to gradually outline the contours of its low-carbon and climate-resilient development, and to get all national stakeholders on board with the Kingdom’s main climate projects. “Given the particular interest that Morocco places in adaptation, a National Strategic Adaptation Plan has been developed with a view to supporting political decision-makers and stakeholders at all levels (national and territorial) to increase resilience natural ecosystems and social and economic sectors facing the impacts of climate change,” indicates the Department of Sustainable Development which is responsible for developing the Rabat-Salé-Kénitra PCT.

As part of the territorial application of climate policy and advanced regionalization, the Kingdom has therefore opted for the promotion of a territorial dynamic in the fight against climate change, by already providing ten regions with their PCT: Marrakech-Safi, Souss-Massa, Casablanca-Settat, Béni Mellal-Khénifra, Laâyoune-Sakia El Hamra, Guelmim-Oued Noun, Oriental, Tangier-Tétouan-Al Hoceïma, Draâ-Tafilalet and Dakhla-Oued Eddahab. These Plans constitute tools for planning and implementing various adaptation and mitigation measures that are aligned and respond to local specificities.