Morocco submitted its INDC to the UN on Friday, pledging an unconditional GHG cut of 13% below 2030 BAU levels that could rise to 32% if it receives financial support of up to $35 billion.
The plan makes Morocco the 39th nation to deliver post-2020 climate pledges ahead of the climate talks in Paris in December.
Morocco emitted 94 million tonnes of CO2e in 2010 and expects that to rise to 171 million in 2030, although it will revise the BAU estimate in 2020.
The plan said Morocco would unconditionally seek to limit 2030 emissions to 148 million tonnes, but if it received cash support of up to $35 billion and an international treaty is agreed in Paris, it would cut 2030 emissions to 117 million tonnes, saving 401 million tonnes over the 2010-2030 period.
The country would seek to implement new policies in all sectors of the economy, but the target would primarily be met by carbon reductions in the electricity sector, by increasing the share of renewables to more than 50% of generation and reducing energy consumption.
It was also open to using an international carbon market to achieve the target.
“Morocco considers the establishment of an international market mechanism vital to reduce the total costs to achieve the target of limiting the temperature increase to 2C,” the plan said.
“Morocco does not exclude the possibility of using these mechanisms to achieve its conditional and/or unconditional targets.”
UN talks are yet to define how mitigation outcomes in one nation could be counted in another via international markets.
Morocco is a member of the World Bank’s Partnership for Market Readiness, which will give the government cash to explore pilot market-based approaches to cutting emissions over the next four years.
Morocco has also expressed interest in the EU’s Pilot Sectoral New Market Mechanisms Project to help reduce emissions in major industrial sectors.
Europe’s climate commissioner Miguel Arias Canete said Tuesday that the EU and Morocco, the expected host of the 2016 year-end UN climate conference, would host an international INDC forum in October to examine global progress on a goal to keep global temperatures below 2C.
By Stian Reklev – stian@carbon-pulse.com
