As is the case in many developing countries, taking account of environmental issues was not a priority for Morocco at a time when its main requirement was to safeguard the fundamentals. Nevertheless, environmental action has gradually increased in strength and the two speeches made by King Mohammed VI during the festivities to mark Throne Day on 2009 and 2010 respectively helped to speed up environmental action.
4.1 Strengthening of environmental protection mechanisms
The determination of Morocco to elevate the environment to the status of a national priority was confirmed at the highest State level. For example:
4.1.1 Strengthening of the institutional framework
In the wake of the Rio Summit in 1992, the country created a ministerial department responsible for conducting the Government’s policy on environmental protection. Many specialist agencies came into being, especially in the sphere of renewable energies. In addition, Morocco has institutions and councils which facilitate consultation and participation of the parties concerned with environmental decision-making agencies (National Council of the Environment, High Council for Water and Climate, High Council for National Development, Economic, Social and Environmental Council, etc.). The new Constitution
24 enshrines the institutional nature of environmental protection and sustainable development with references in a number of its articles.
Article 31: The State, public institutions and regional authorities shall work to muster all the means available to facilitate equal access of its citizens to their rights: access to water and a healthy environment; to sustainable development.
Article 71: The authority of the law governs, in addition to those matters which are expressly devolved upon it by other articles, the rules on the management of the environment, the protection of natural resources and sustainable development.
Article 152: The Economic, Social and Environmental Council may be consulted by the Government, by the Chamber of Representatives and by the Chamber of Councillors on all economic, social or environmental matters. It gives its opinion on the general guidelines of the national economy and sustainable development.
4.1.2 Strengthening of the legal framework
Considerable progress has been made on the legal front, with the enactment of several environmental laws, as the principal laws on the protection of the environment have been promulgated over the last decade:
Law 12-03 on environmental impact studies makes it mandatory to carry out an impact study for projects that may have negative impacts on the biophysical and human environments as a result of their location. This affects the majority of infrastructure projects, which are submitted to a national environmental impact study committee for ratification if their amount exceeds DH 200 million. The law applies to public or private, natural or legal persons. It sets down specific penalties in addition to those of a general nature related to civil or criminal liability.
Law 28-00 on waste management is designed to monitor and protect human, animal and plant health, water, air, earth, ecosystems, sensitive areas and landscape and the environment in general against the harmful effects of waste, which it defines and classifies; it also sets out obligations concerning waste management and disposal. The law stipulates that waste matter must be capable of being reduced in quantity and harmfulness during its life cycle. There are also requirements in place related to the types of waste. This concerns those who keep, produce and operate waste. Such persons may incur criminal or civil liability.
Law 13-09 on renewable energies is designed to develop national renewable energy sources. It provides a legal framework for the potential creation and operation of power generation plants using renewable energy sources. It specifies the general principles to be followed and the applicable legal system, including marketing and exportation. Implementing decrees should be published in the near future.
Law 47-09 on energy efficiency, capable of forcing companies to carry out energy audits on the basis of a specific consumption threshold, is under discussion. An energy efficiency code in the building sector is being prepared to define the energy efficiency of buildings.
25 The law on air pollution8 targets the prevention of and fight against emissions of air pollutants likely to be harmful to human and animal health, the soil, the climate, the cultural heritage and the environment in general. It applies to any legal person or entity subject to public or private law, possessing, keeping, using or operating buildings, mining, industrial, commercial or agricultural installations, or installations relating to the craft industry or vehicles, engine-driven vehicles or equipment, combustion, waste incineration, heating or refrigeration appliances. It sets out specific penalties.
The Water Law9 complements three dahirs (royal decrees of 1914, 1919, 1925) which classify water in the public water domain. It defines a regime aimed at water conservation and protection. It prohibits building on freeboards, rivers and canals and any obstacle hindering navigation or the free flow of water. It also prohibits making or removing any deposit, plantation or crop in the public water domain. The law also makes provision for the institutional management of water and lays down penalties.
Generally, although the existing laws are quite well structured, there are a number of problems which make it impossible to implement them fully.
First, there is a delay in putting in place the decrees or in implementing texts. For example, despite its 72 decrees, Law 10-95 is still not complete since many aspects have not been taken into consideration (wastewater discharge into the sea, desalination of sea water, water saving, water rights, management of exceptional circumstances, management of sludge generated by water treatment plants, etc.). Precepts such as the “polluter pays principle”
struggle for recognition because the definition of the discharge limits has still not been approved since 2005. More recent laws are not operational, for lack of decrees.
Second, there is the question of monitoring the observance of laws and penalties.
Much needs to be done in this sector and the monitoring teams must be reinforced, especially in the regions. The budget of DH 1.5 million ($170, 000) of the Department of Regulation and Control of the Ministry of Energy, Mines, Water and the Environment is not sufficient to cover requirements properly. When offences are identified, very few result in effective prosecution.
4.1.3 Strengthening of the monitoring, evaluation and prevention tools This is being done with the creation of the national laboratory of the environment, observatories (National Observatory of the Environment and regional observatories of the environment and sustainable development), the definition of the indicators of sustainable development, the creation of national and regional committees for environmental impact studies. However, these tools have suffered from a lack of both financial and human resources and the location of these observatories in the regions is not always a straightforward process.
Furthermore, there is scant support from the various production sectors when it comes to environmental problems. Few sectors are cognizant of the harmful effects of their activities and almost no sector monitors the pollution it causes. Control over the environments involved is still in the embryonic stage and there is a more or less systemic absence of data in the regions, with a few rare exceptions. Integrated regional environmental assessments have all come up against this absence of data.
8Law 13-03.
9Law 10-95.
26 4.1.4 Strengthening of the economic and financial instruments
This has been effected through the creation of national funds (the national environment fund, the industrial depollution fund, the liquid waste and wastewater treatment fund, the energy development fund, etc.) but also using new mechanisms for cooperation (subsidies, agreements, public-private partnership) to support the measures adopted for the protection of resources and environments.
4.2 National charter for the environment and sustainable development (CNEDD) and its implementation process
When he made his speech from the throne in 2009, His Majesty King Mohammed VI called for the drafting of “a national global environmental charter […] in the framework of a sustainable development process”.
The national charter for the environment and sustainable development (CNEDD) represents a major turning point in Morocco’s institutional reforms, because that decision marked the point when political action tried to create consistency and compatibility between economic development, safeguarding the environment and the well-being of the population.
The democratic process of drafting the charter was fundamental because it laid the foundations for interministerial cooperation on which the implementation of sustainable development could be based. Two key reference points serve to implement sustainable development in Morocco:
(i) The framework law for the environment and sustainable development, with regulatory scope and effect;
(ii) The environmental protection system which enables technical implementation.
The framework law for the environment and sustainable development was adopted in the Council of Ministers and Government in December 201210. The draft framework law is one of the factors facilitating the swifter implementation of the inclusive green economy and it:
(i) Defines the rights and duties inherent to the environment and to sustainable development incumbent upon natural and legal persons and states the principles which are to be respected by the State, regional and local authorities and the public institutions and State-owned enterprises and their partners, both when their action plans are drafted and when they are executed;
(ii) Strengthens the legal protection of resources and ecosystems by listing the types of measures that the State plans to take to fight all forms of pollution and to procure a high and effective level of protection for the said resources and environments;
(iii) Enshrines sustainable development as a fundamental value shared by all sectors of society, but particularly as an approach to be rolled out in global and sectoral public development policies and places an obligation on the Government to prepare the national sustainable development strategy to enable all parties to become familiar with the key policy guidelines for reference in this area;
10It was enacted in the Official Gazette of 20 March 2014.
27 (iv) Defines the responsibilities and commitments that all parties concerned – the State, regional authorities, public institutions and State-run enterprises, private companies, civil society organizations and citizens – must respect concerning the environment and sustainable development;
(v) Lays down institutional, economic and financial measures intended to establish a system of environmental governance characterized by the effectiveness and consistency of the actions carried out, especially in terms of evaluation, creation of awareness, education and social communication in the service of the environment and sustainable development;
(vi) Lays the foundations of a system of environmental responsibility combined with a financing mechanism for restitution and compensation for damage caused to the environment and provides for the establishment of an environmental policy to build the capacities of the administration to ensure the proper implementation of the regulation governing the environment and sustainable development.
An integrated system of sustainable environmental protection (SPDE) has been adopted. This steering and management tool is designed to give concrete form to the principles and values of CNEDD in the context of incremental strategic planning which consists of:
Upgrading the environment (environmental upgrading, MANE) to gain a unidimensional understanding of the environment through thematic environmental approaches given concrete form in programmes essentially designed to be remedial. The principal programmes related to this upgrading initiative are the national household waste management programme and the national sanitation plan.
Building a national environmental strategy (SNE), making the environment a multidimensional pillar, with a strategic approach deployed in every sector designed to be both preventive and remedial;
Defining and implementing a national sustainable development strategy which will help to integrate additional aspects, typical elements of sustainable development related to the regions and to the socioeconomic and sociocultural contexts. This strategy, currently being prepared by the Ministry of Energy, Mines, Water and the Environment, analyses such aspects as the potential of the different sectors to facilitate the emergence of an inclusive green economy.
Consequently, the implementation of CNEDD is a serious expression of the government desire to give priority to status sustainable development which must support both decision-making and arbitration.
4.3 Continuing institutional upgrading for the inclusive green economy in Morocco
In principle, the institutionalization of environmental action seems to be gaining ground; nevertheless, many obstacles remain.
Concerning regulations
Although the environmental laws have mostly been put in place, the implementing texts are slow to be instituted. Furthermore, key efforts must still be made in relation to
28 control and penalties. Capacity-building among the inspectors of the Department of the Environment is needed to ensure that monitoring is conducted on the ground. It is crucial that such controls and the possible ensuing reporting of offences should be given consideration by the Ministry of Justice. As things stand, when offences are identified, they are not generally followed by prosecution.
Concerning the implementation of sectoral strategies
Few sectors take any real account of environmental impacts. Although impact studies are required for large-scale projects, there is a need to systematize the strategic environmental assessments of the plans and programmes as proposed by draft framework law 99-12.
Although inclusive green growth should apply to all sectors, it is nevertheless true that the developmental level varies from one sector to another.
In the light of the basic quantitative criteria, such as contribution to GDP, investment share in the State budget and number of jobs created, it seems that the agricultural sector should be the first to be analysed, a concept confirmed if other factors are taken into consideration, such as:
Pressure on water resources: the sector absorbs 80 per cent of available water resources;
Energy requirements: the agricultural sector accounts for 18.7 per cent of energy consumption;
Pressure on land, notably in respect of pollution related to the increased use of fertilizers which is currently inadequately regulated; the generation of untreated waste such as vegetable water, plastic films and soon, drip irrigation pipes;
Evolution of investment: 14 per cent of the investment budget in 2013.