2024-05-01 10:41:35
“This strategy should make it possible to assess the green financing gap and identify measures and mechanisms capable of enabling the national financial sector, as well as foreign financial institutions, to increase their contributions to green and climate finance,” said Mr. Jouahri who was speaking at a conference on “the macroeconomic impact of climate change”, co-organized by BAM and the Central Bank of Spain.
This strategy, he argued, will be accompanied by the adoption of a green financial taxonomy necessary to channel financial flows and prevent “green washing”.
Referring to Morocco‘s efforts to address the effects of climate change, Mr. Jouahri reviewed the international climate conventions ratified by the Kingdom.
The Kingdom has launched several major sectoral programs and strategies, including the “National Climate Plan 2020-2030”, the “National Low Carbon Strategy for 2050” and the “National Water Plan 2020-2050”, he recalled.
In the energy sector, ambitions are also high with the aim of increasing the share of renewable energies in the energy mix to 52% by 2030, indicated Mr. Jouahri, noting that in November 2021, Morocco presented a Nationally Determined Contribution revised with a more ambitious objective of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 45.5% by 2030.
In terms of budgetary policy, the framework law on taxation adopted in 2021 includes among its objectives the promotion of environmental protection, in particular through the establishment of a carbon tax, he said.
“At Bank Al-Maghrib, we have been involved for several years in these national and global efforts to combat climate change and its consequences,” noted Mr. Jouahri.
Thus, in 2021, the Central Bank issued a directive on the management of financial risks linked to climate change and the environment and is currently looking into new regulatory directives to provide banks with guidance on the data to be collected and the indicators and metrics to be put in place to measure climate risks emanating from large borrowers and assess the green and sustainable portion of their portfolios.
In terms of the management of its foreign exchange reserves, Bank Al-Maghrib integrates the principle of sustainability into its investment directive, by promoting sustainable and responsible investments.
As a company, Bank Al-Maghrib has strengthened its environmental commitment in recent years, making it a major focus of its social responsibility policy. In 2019, it set up a dedicated structure to better take climate change into account in its missions and reduce the environmental footprint of its activities.
In this regard, in 2021 the Bank carried out an assessment of its greenhouse gas emissions and defined a plan for their reduction mainly comprising energy efficiency programs, the use of renewable energies and sustainable mobility.
In 2022, it adopted a charter of commitments for responsible and sustainable management of water resources, thus contributing to the national effort to rationalize this resource.
In the same sense, BAM actively participates in the work of numerous international bodies such as the NGFS (the Network for the Greening of the Financial System) of which it is a member of the steering committee, and strengthens cooperation in this area with partner central banks and international institutions, always with the objective: to understand better in order to act better.
This conference was attended by the Minister of Equipment and Water, Nizar Baraka, the Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development, Leila Benali, and the President of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council, Ahmed Reda Chami. , the governor of the Bank of Spain, Pablo Hernandez De Cos, the Spanish ambassador to Morocco, Ricardo Díez-Hochleitner, and representatives of the Moroccan banking and financial sectors.
2024-05-01 10:41:35