Morocco’s whole-of-government approach to climate policy in action

After facing a series of climate shocks and droughts in 2018-2023 and multiple policy dialogues with international partners, Morocco has placed climate change high on its policy agenda. Cash crop exports, hydropower generation, and drinking water availability significantly affected economic growth and domestic revenues, so the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) prioritized adopting a strong “whole-of-government” approach to climate policy, supported by the World Bank Group through a Climate Project-for-R esults, and Technical Assistance (TA) financed by the Climate Support Facility . Morocco climbed to the 6th position in the 2026 Climate Performance Index, besides Denmark, UK, Chile and far from peers. It also adopted the new Green Generation Strategy to unleash the potential of job creation all along the agricultural value chains.

Climate change in Morocco is increasingly affecting jobs, especially in rural areas. Per the WBG Climate Change and Development Report (CCDR),  poorer populations are particularly vulnerable to droughts and water scarcity as 79% of the poor live in rural areas. The agricultural sector employs nearly 30% of the national workforce, and more than 80% of the rural population. Rural livelihood is intrinsically linked to agriculture, with a large majority relying on rainfall for their production of income and food.

With frequent droughts and structural water stress expected in the coming years, rural job opportunities will shrink in the decades to come if climate adaption is not prioritized.

Clean energy transition is another key to Morocco’s climate agenda, growth, and job creation. An energy transition would bring net job creation on a substantial scale, with investments until 2030 potentially yielding around 28,000 net jobs across the economy per year, about 9% of the 300,000 annual jobs shortfall currently estimated in Morocco. This transition is highly needed to ensure access to the EU market and keeping Morocco highly competitive, given the EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) requiring exporting industry low carbon footprint.

But despite progress, international commitments, and two decades of sustained reforms and public investments, climate policy efforts are still limited compared to the challenges. Morocco was one of the first countries to submit NDCs (Nationally-determined contributions to the UN Framework of Climate Change) in 2016. Also some flagship initiatives were implemented such as hydropower, large-scale renewables, drop irrigation, and disaster-risk management (2022 CCDR). However, policy implementation is still constrained by challenges such as limited institutions’ collaboration, contestability and innovation (2024 WDR on MIC trap). Thus, policy implementation had not fully matched yet the level of the commitments expressed in the many strategies relevant to climate change.

Therefore, in early 2025, the MEF set up a Climate Unit in charge of climate public finance management reforms to facilitate a “whole-of-government” collaboration with rotating leadership. This Climate Unit is not a dedicated department, but a committee with flexible arrangements to consult and coordinate monthly with the relevant departments beyond the MEF. This has mitigated the silos effect of public administration and the competition with established official commissions.

The first tangible outcome is the alignment of the 2025 NDCs 3.0 and the 2026-2028 budget. For the first time, the 2026 Law of Finance includes information on public financing for climate NDCs for 2026-2028, and the government has clarity on financing gaps. This dynamic is to be repeated in the forthcoming budget preparation process and expanded to Climate Budget Tagging. 

Other groundwork has been laid to help the “whole-of-government” approach reach tangible results. Morocco finalized “greening” its public procurement through a new manual last year, and its e-procurement portal includes a climate tag. A framework for Green Sovereign Bonds has been drafted and a list of eligible projects is being developed. Finally, Morocco is reviewing the draft Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) reporting framework and baseline for State-Own Enterprises (SOEs).

Country budgets are a financial mirror of public policy. That is why success can be found in putting a concrete budget behind climate NDCs, enabling Morocco to turn ambition into an executable roadmap and reality. These policy changes resulted from a tight collaboration with many international partners such as the World Bank, UN NDC Partnership, AFD, AIIB, EU, GIZ, and KfW.