Driving Subnational Climate Action in Marocco: The Innovative Example of Souss Massa's Territorial Plan

The Territorial Plan to address Global Warming of Souss Massa (PTRC-SM) was established to better coordinate inter-sectoral climate actions to address global warming in the Souss Massa region and capitalise on past experiences and lessons learned on adaptation and mitigation. The PTRC is currently being implemented and incorporates two components. The Regional Environment Directorate leads the first component related to adaptation with support from the German Development Cooperation
Agency (GIZ)'s Environmental and Climate Governance Project (ProGEC-GIZ). The Regional Council manages the second component on mitigation.

The PTRC ‘adaptation component’ is presented in three parts:
A territorial strategy (STRC) which describes the current state of vulnerability in the Souss Massa Region while addressing the resilience of the territory and good practices recorded at the territorial Level;

The Souss Massa Priority Adaptation Plan (PAP) which capitalises on priority project proposals established by a variety of stakeholders and partnerships including local community groups, Research institutions, regional councils and committees, sectoral associations, national ministry representatives, etc. to better adapt to climate change;

A synthesis developed for decision-makers that summarises the key results of the first two products;

The plan will serve as a tool for territorial governance, the implementation of a climate monitoring system and the evaluation of inter-sectoral efforts in the field of adaptation through 2025. A construction site will be allocated exclusively to structural flood protection structures. Furthermore, other Projects have been identified for implementation, covering various topics from biodiversity to tourism.

The fact that the PTRC is able to operationalise national climate planning and priorities by driving the formulation and coordination of local climate adaptation projects is a key innovation that can be leveraged in other jurisdictions both in Morocco — PTRCs are being planned for the regions of Marrakech- Safi and Drâa-Tafilalet— as well as in other countries. Besides the innovative character of its actions, the PTRC-SM qualifies as a good practice due to strong stakeholder engagement and technical feasibility.