By YANGE IKYAA
Morocco, which is a net importer of fossil fuels for national consumption, has turned to its railway sector as one of the ways to reduce or phase down its carbon footprint and pollution from the use of fossil fuels, while maintaining a cleaner environment.
The country produces marginal amounts of oil, natural gas, refined petroleum products and relies heavily on imports processed hydrocarbons to meet local energy needs and power national economy.
In 2017, fossil fuels accounted for more than 80% of Morocco’s electricity generation mix, and renewable energy, including wind (9%), hydroelectricity (5%), and solar (1%) accounted for most of the rest.
However, according to the Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) plan submitted by Morocco to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the country plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, especially in agriculture, by 32 per cent by 2030.
The North African nation also plans for 52 per cent of its installed energy capacity to be clean energy sources by 2030, and has pledged to plant 200,000 hectares of forest as a means of expanding its bio-based green infrastructure to aid carbon sinking, going forward.
Back to its railway system approach in tackling the problem of dirty-fuel use, the 323-kilometer Al Boraq high-speed rail service, which runs between the cities of Casablanca and Tangier in the Kingdom of Morocco, has begun using green energy.
The National Railways Office (ONCF), in a statement, noted that from January 2022, the national operator, ONCF, will provide clean energy for the national railway network by progressively adopting its use in some operations.
Currently, the railway operator is meeting a lower percentage of its energy needs with clean energy, but with plans to increase that to 50 percent in 2023.
This transition is expected to improve its carbon footprint by avoiding about 120,000 tons of carbon emissions annually, and is representative of Morocco’s national energy strategy, which aims to increase clean energy contribution to the country’s entire energy mix.