Salaheddine Mezouar, Minister of Foreign Affairs and COP22 President held a meeting with Minister Mohammed on August 23, during which he reiterated the importance of the two countries on the African continent and expressed “the will of Morocco to work with Nigeria to support African climate change action in order to guarantee a strong implementation of the Paris Agreement on the continent as well as the success of COP22.”
Minister Mohammed also met with COP22 Special Envoy and Morocco High-Level Climate Champion, Hakima El Haite to discuss the framework cooperation on environmental issues, participation in events to be held in the lead up to COP22, as well as Nigeria’s interest in learning best practices from Morocco on its NOOR solar program. Nigeria has set a target of 50% renewable power by 2020, including 1,000MW of solar energy. Morocco is a green power leader in Africa with a goal of 52% renewables by 2030 and 2,000 MW of solar by 2020.
The Nigerian Minister’s visit to Morocco included a visit to the NOOR solar plant in Ouazazate, which she described as a stellar example of “Africans taking ownership on a renewable power agenda, at scale and with Moroccan professionals. I’ll take that back with me to Nigeria.”
During her two-day visit to Morocco the Nigerian Minister also met with COP22 Scientific Committee President, Nizar Baraka, World Bank Country Director for the Maghreb and Malta, Marie-Françoise Marie-Nelly, MASEN Director, Mustapha Bakkoury and high-level representatives from the African Development Bank.
Source: cop22.ma
