Policy case

Reduced use of virgin materials and/or an increase of the use of secondary and bio-based materials

Reduce Material Consumption (SDG12)

Minimise waste through diversion: Instead of sending waste to landfill, it is redirected into other industrial processes for handling, treatment, recycling, recovery, or reuse in various forms. 

Minimise waste through design: At the outset of a process of project, plan and design such that there is zero waste or minimal waste during production, use, and at end of life. 

Minimise Waste (SDG12)

Producing basic and specialty chemicals, inks, agricultural chemical such as fertilisers and pesticides, plastics including packaging, and rubber

Chemical and Plastic

Work together throughout the supply chain, internally within organisations and with the public sector and communities to increase transparency and create joint value

Team up to create joint value

Engage with the government on circular policies and programmes

Government collaboration

Participating in government programmes that support and advance the circular economy

Government programmes

'Regulate' changes the rules of the systems to achieve compliance through enforcement. 


Regulate

Legislation

Bans

Impacts

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Industries

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A framework of policy instruments that enabled and encourage the transition to the circular economy

Policies

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A framework of policy instruments that enable and stimulate the transition to the circular economy

The principles of a circular economy concern designing out waste, regenerating ecosystems and keeping items in use. Decoupling the economy from material flows—improving the rate of resource productivity faster than the economic growth rate—is also a consistent guide. By evolving with the growing number of applications of circular economy principles, and consolidating these strategies across thematic areas, Circle Economy’s Key Elements Framework (KE) renders the elements of the circular economy salient and serves as a basis to derive contextual strategies and interventions. 


The Framework consists of:
- Core Elements: Activities directly handling product or material flows; and uniquely,
- Enabling Elements: those that remove obstacles for core actors.


Key elements of the circular economy

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Circle Economy's framework of strategies and activities that define the circular economy

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Based on the work of [Bocken et al. (2016)](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309699661_Product_design_and_business_model_strategies_for_a_circular_economy), the Four Flows Framework serves as a simple framework for managing resource flows in a circular economy by using less (Narrow), using for longer (Slow), using again (Cycle), and using clean, regenerative materials and energy (Regenerate).

These different principles of circular economy can be applied to our socioeconomic metabolism: we can design stocks like buildings, infrastructure, machinery, and vehicles to be rich resource mines for the future, and design manufactured goods and consumables to be cycled and made regenerative. Furthermore, the focus must also centre on getting more value out of fewer materials. Achieving the aims of a circular economy—minimising material use, regenerating the Earth, and preventing material losses—can be done through these four key strategies mentioned above.

Source: Circle Economy. (2023). *[The circularity gap report 2023](https://www.circularity-gap.world/2023)* (p.22). Amsterdam: Circle Economy. 

Four Flows Framework

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Rabat, Morocco – As a ban on the production and use of plastic bags comes into effect across Morocco on Friday, green campaigners say that the country’s consumers may need years to fully comply with the new law.
A landmark bill passed by the Moroccan parliament last October banned the production, import, sale and distribution of plastic bags across the country.
The bill, which became law on July 1, is part of a larger environmentally conscious effort across the North African country to go green.
Morocco ranks alongside Costa Rica, Bhutan and Ethiopia as one of the world’s greenest countries, a fact partially due to its ambitious goals to crackdown on carbon emissions.
Recent sustainability measures have turned the country into a green leader among developing nations, and the city of Marrakesh is due to host a global climate change conference in November 2016.
But as the July 1 deadline approached, shops, street sellers and retailers across the country scrambled to stockpile reserves of reusable bags. The change, they say, will not be easy. 
 READ MORE: Morocco’s colonial heritage in higher education
The country’s battle with the plastic bag has been in the works for years. Efforts in 2009 to ban the production and use of black plastic bags, which litter the country’s streets and beaches, were only partially successful, as authorities struggled to curtail informal production of the bags.
Morocco is the second-largest plastic bag consumer after the United States. It uses about three billion plastic bags a year, according to the Moroccan Industry Ministry. That means, on average, that each one of Morocco’s 34 million people uses about 900 bags a year.
A blanket ban on the use of plastic bags will take some getting used to, says Jennie Romer, a New York-based lawyer.
“It’s a big cultural shift with that type of broader law,” she said. “As long as the government has the motivation to really enforce that. There is a lot of potential. The government entity that is implementing it has to be completely on board in order to make that really happen in practice.”
While Industry Minister Moulay Hafid Elalamy, the initiator of the bill, did not return requests for comment, he said on his Twitter account that “several alternative solutions” will be made widely available, such as bags made of paper and fabric. He added that “freezer bags were excluded.”
For weeks now, awareness campaigns throughout the country have been warning Moroccans against the use of bags, which take hundreds of years to degrade. Their message is simple: plastic bags are unhealthy and dangerous for the ecosystem in a country that struggles to clean its streets and where fields of rubbish plague the local environment.
“They do it to promote the image of Morocco as an environmentally friendly country, which is partly true, but not completely,” Mamoun Ghallab, a sustainable development consultant, told Al Jazeera during a recent beach clean-up event in Casablanca.  Ghallab said the government hasn’t done much to raise environmental awareness. Some campaigns about littering have been done, he added, but their cartoonish design made them only marketable to children.
“If citizens are not aware of the concerns and the challenges we’re facing, things will go much slower,” Ghallab said. “Everything begins and ends with the citizens.”
But the UN Environmental Performance Review of Morocco, which has analysed the country’s environment protection progress since 2012, reported that Morocco “fails to address environmental challenges, which can gradually become economic and development challenges”.
Moroccan cities only collect 70 percent of solid waste, according to a 2013 study released by the German Society for International Cooperation. And the World Bank has reported that less than 10 percent of collected waste is disposed of in an “environmentally and socially acceptable manner.”
Yassine Zegzouti, 30, president of local advocacy organisation Mawarid, said it is possible for Morocco to totally ban plastic bags, but that changing consumer habits will be the most challenging part.
The government has shown a commitment to putting the ban into practice, he said, not only through TV spots encouraging citizens to change their habits, but also by investing millions of Moroccan dirhams into encouraging the industry to transform their production of the bags.
“The formal sector will need four to five years to comply with the new law,” said Zegzouti.
“But the use of plastic bags is anchored in [consumer] habit,” said Zegzouti. “All actors need to change these habits to not have any damage in the future.”
This story was produced in association with Round Earth Media. Elaina Zachos contributed reporting. 


Morocco has created the image of being a country strongly committed to sustainable development, thanks to investment in renewable sources of energy and the organisation of the COP22 in 2016. Similarly, Morocco has also adopted a law to fight against plastic pollution. Beginning on 1 July 2016, the 77-15 law (commonly known as the Zero Mika Law) banned the production, import, sale or distribution of single-use plastic bags. Since then, the reality on the ground has shown that more than just a law is required to get rid of plastic bags. This is not surprising in a country that had the second highest per capita consumption of plastic bags in 2015. 
Just before the Zero Mika law came into force, the communiqués from the Ministry for Industry stated that there were 26 billion plastic bags consumed each year in Morocco, or 800 bags per inhabitant. Plastic bags were used, and are still used, for a myriad of different purposes: to buy vegetables, buttermilk “lben”, 200g of olives, as rubbish bin liners or even to cover old TV antennas since, apparently, it helps to better capture signal. It is in this context that the 77-15 law was passed in December 2015 with the total ban on plastic bags coming into force just 7 months later on the 1 July 2016. The passing of this law was met with strong resistance from the plastic industry and disbelief on the part of citizens who saw in this ban just another constraint to their day-to-day lives. Other countries, especially in Europe, have established less restrictive laws that announced the arrival of similar bans two years ahead of schedule in order to prepare public opinion and allow for a smooth transition for the industry. 
A national communication campaign that lasted a month and a half was launched in June 2016 just a few weeks before the ban. The new law was also accompanied by a national campaign to collect plastic bags, organised by the Moroccan Coalition for Climate Justice (CMJC), a group of 150 NGOs that had the authorities’ support. The majority of the bags collected were burned in cement factories or disposed in landfills. Until the end of 2016, the press reported on checks made on markets by authorities and the seizing of illegal stockpiles. Morocco was celebrated for its efforts, and visitors to the COP22 appreciated the cleanliness of its cities and countryside. In January 2017, the Ministry of Industry drew up a positive assessment stating that “since the coming into force of the law, the use of plastic bags has considerably been reduced: it has almost been eradicated from modern shops and the use of alternative products has seen an increase in smaller local shops.” 
At the same time as this ban, several alternatives were promoted. A support fund for the reconversion of companies was subsidised, to a maximum of 75.5 million MAD, so that they could produce paper bags, as well as woven and non-woven bags. These alternatives were called “environmentally friendly,” despite the majority of them being made out of plastic. Non-woven bags are made of 100 percent plastic, using a polypropylene fabric, and are often called “fabric bags.” Initially, they were sold by shopkeepers, but faced with customer dissatisfaction they are now given free of charge and have become just as disposable as the previous bags. More than three billion non-woven bags are produced in Morocco every year. 40 percent of financing from the support fund for the reconversion of companies went to non-woven bags and their production has increased by 56 percent since 2016. 
In reality, the ban on plastic bags has had a particular effect on large supermarkets. However, since the start of 2017, plastic bags have progressively reappeared on markets and in small shops, which represent 80 percent of retail outlets in Morocco. In July 2018, on the second anniversary of the Zero Mika law, an investigation was carried out by the Zero Zbel Association and confirmed this idea. Carried out in 10 markets in Casablanca, Agadir and Tetouan, this investigation showed that customers on the markets still consumed large quantities of illegal plastic bags and that stall owners preferred to risk a fine than to risk losing their clientele if they didn’t distribute plastic bags anymore. The main conclusion of this investigation was that efforts to check and punish must be concentrated on the informal sector producing plastic bags, which once again can be found everywhere in Moroccan markets, and not small shops that are at the end of the value chain. 
In the days that followed the publication of the investigation results, the Ministry of Industry reacted positively and announced an amendment to the 77-15 law, which was adopted by the government in January 2019 (draft law 57-18). This amendment strengthened checks on manufacturers, targeted transparency on the import of raw materials that would be used to produce plastic bags and raised the amount of possible fines. 
 Despite these measures, plastic bags remain. This is clearly shown in the rush to purchase plastic bags that preceded the coming into force of the ban and continues to limit the efficiency of the law. More participative decision-making, longer preparation times and a more significant effort to prepare citizens would surely have enabled the ban to be more efficient. The choice of promoting polypropylene alternatives also strongly limits the potential of reducing plastic pollution, which remains present in all its different forms. Real alternatives are there and are not costly, whether be it wicker baskets, fabric bags, reusable rigid containers, or glass jars. It would be good to promote the use of effective and creative alternatives instead of continuing to subsidise alternatives that are, for the most part, still made out of plastic. 
This is a chapter from the Plastic Atlas 2020.
References:
Ministry of Industry, Trade and Commerce of the Green and Digital Economy, “Ban of Plastic Bags: Positive Results Six Months after The Law Entered into Force” https:// bit.ly/30YCR7W 
Ministry of Industry, Trade and Commerce of the Green and Digital Economy, “Interdiction des sacs en plastique”, https://bit.ly/30yvqe1 
Mapecology, “L’interdiction des sacs en plastique : la loi 77.15, un pas décisif ”, 03.01.2019, https:// bit.ly/2OvoMrV 
Zero Zbel, Mamoun Ghallab, “PRESS RELEASE JUNE 29TH 2018 On the occasion of the 2nd anniversary of the law banning plastic bags in Morocco Publication of survey results on the use of plastic bags and their alternatives in Morocco” https://bit.ly/3h14WRH  

Close your eyes and envision Morocco. Are you picturing a secluded haven of kaleidoscopic riads with glittering natural beaches? True, the small North African country teems with beauty around every corner. Sadly, though, many people don’t realize Morocco fought an ongoing battle with one of the environment’s most formidable enemies: plastic bags.A 2013 study showed Moroccan cities were only able to discard 70 percent of trash. The majority of these bags are left to pollute the country’s picturesque natural landscapes for centuries to come as they persist in the environment. Plastic bags can take hundreds of years to decompose, entangling wildlife and transforming pristine natural beauty into man-made monstrosity.Morocco uses three billion plastic bags annually --  the second largest plastic bag consumer in the world after the United States. That’s 900 plastic bags used per person every single year!Luckily, Morocco is no stranger to environmental activism. The coastal country ranks among one of the greenest in the world due to its efforts to crackdown on deleterious carbon emissions. And now they’re getting rid of the extra baggage. The movement started in 2009 when Morocco banned black plastic bags in order to reduce the unsightly and unhealthy amounts of litter in streets and on beaches.Last October, the Moroccan Parliament took things a step further by passing a landmark bill to ban the production, import, sale, and distribution of all plastic bags across the country. The bill was signed into law on July 1, and has already proven to make for a substantial adjustment for Moroccan citizens.A week before the legislation passed, street vendors and shop owners nationwide scrambled to stock-up on coveted plastic bags. Green campaigners predict that the total ban unfortunately won’t be a swift or seamless transition for citizens.  Likely, it will take years of adjusting to fully adapt to sound alternatives such as paper bags and thicker, reusable totes.The payoff will be monumental for the country’s environmental health.  Morocco has set a noble example for the rest of the world.  If the second largest plastic bag consumer in the world can ban these hazardous bags altogether, think of the potential of green-conscious countries around the world!Morocco is joined in its complete ban of plastic bags by China and the African countries of Uganda, Somalia, Rwanda, Botswana, Kenya, South Africa, and Ethiopia. In 2015, England took the step to place an official bag charge of 5p on all companies with 250 or more employees.
What will it take for the United States, the global leader in plastic bag usage, and others to follow suit and start taking action against one of the world’s most harmful and most accessible pollutants?This article was contributed by Marilyn Smith, Global Citizen. 

Africa

Morocco

Government of Morocco

In 2016, the Moroccan Parliament&nbsp;made the next step towards reducing plastic consumption by passing a&nbsp;landmark bill&nbsp;to ban the production, import, sale, and distribution of all plastic bags across the country.&nbsp;Nevertheless, according to the Heinrich Böll foundation, bags have progressively reappeared on markets and in small shops, which represent 80% of retail outlets in Morocco.

Introducing the Zero Mika Law in Morocco

Article / Report

Impacts on the social fabric of the community and well-being of the individuals and families.

Social Impact

Impact on increased knowledge and understanding as a result of the case study

Increase Awareness

Providing public and private education and support services at any level or for any profession, and governmental and public administration services, including judicial, regulatory, and legislative activities, taxation, defence, public order and safety, immigration services, foreign affairs and the administration of government programmes

Education and Government Services

Provide guidance or professional training to educate employees to use circular economy principles

Training on the circular economy

'Inform' increases the overall levels of awareness and builds the necessary skills and knowledge around the circular economy to foster long-term change.

Inform

Integrate principles of circularity into primary, secondary and tertiary curriculum and conduct workplace trainings

 Education and Curriculum

Awareness raising events

Information campaigns

 Develop research, structure knowledge, encourage innovation networks and disseminate findings with integrity


Strengthen and advance knowledge


FERRARA, 13 December 2019 – The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) has introduced policymakers from Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco to the different phases of the circular economy from engineering, economics and law perspectives. The training programme on circular economy policies for representatives of Ministries of Industry, Economy, Commerce, Finance and Environment was provided by UNIDO in collaboration with the University of Ferrara, the Centre for Research on Circular economy, Innovation and SMEs (CERCIS) and the SEEDS interuniversity research centre.
Working groups were encouraged to think about circular economy solutions for specific products from technical and policy points of view. The programme also included meetings with representatives of Italy's Emilia-Romagna region, clusters of private-public organizations, the energy and financial sectors, and the Centoform vocational training centre, as well as a field trip to the Renazzo headquarters of the metal recycling company, Guidetti Recycling Systems.
For information, contact:
Nicola Cantore
Research and Industrial Policy Officer
Department of Policy Research and Statistics, UNIDO
n.cantore@unido.org Franz Brugger
Capacity Development Manager
Department of Policy Research and Statistics, UNIDO
f.brugger@unido.org



 SEEDS is an interuniversity research centre that aims at developing and promote research and higher education projects in the fields of ecological and environmental economics, with a special eye to the role of policy and innovation in the path towards a sustainable society, in economic and environmental terms. Main fields of action are Environmental policy, economics of innovation, energy economics and policy, economic evaluation by stated preference techniques, waste management and policy, climate change and development. 

Egypt

Tunisia

United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)

Government of Tunisia

Government of Egypt

University of Ferrara

Centre for Research on Circular economy, Innovation and SMEs (CERCIS) 

Interuniversity research centre SEEDS

The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) has introduced policymakers from Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco to the different phases of the circular economy from engineering, economics and law perspectives. The training programme on circular economy policies for representatives of Ministries of Industry, Economy, Commerce, Finance and Environment was provided by UNIDO in collaboration with the University of Ferrara, the&nbsp;Centre for Research on Circular economy, Innovation and SMEs&nbsp;(CERCIS) and the&nbsp;SEEDS interuniversity research centre.

Circular economy training for policymakers from Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco

Reduced green house gas emissions released into the biosphere

Reduce Emissions (SDG13)

Contributing to the improvement of biodiversity including species diversity, total number of protected species, and ecosystem health

Biodiversity

Producing building materials and providing services to create residential and non-residential infrastructure and real estate


Construction and Infrastructure

Producing and gathering crop and animal products from land and water through farming, hunting, and fishing

Agriculture

Roadmaps and strategies and targets

Metrics and indicators to measure progress

Advocate for circular change

      HomeThematic areasPolicySCP-NAPs monitoring and implementationMorocco                
To sustainable consumption and production for circular and green economies
From policy to policy implementation
National priorities: sustainable housing and construction; sustainable agriculture and food
         The process to develop an SCP-NAP kicked-off with an extensive state of the art on Sustainable Consumption and Production in Morocco and the publication of a structured report.  Based on the results of this assessment report Morocco decided to develop three distinct documents:
(I) a national framework for the promotion of sustainable Consumption and Production;
(II) a sectorial ten-year action plan for agriculture and agri-food;
(III) a sectorial ten-year action plan for eco-construction and sustainable buildings.
These national documents were built upon already existing and validated national strategies and plans to assure coherence, sustainability and implementation of the plans and followed an in-depth consultation process involving a large and diverse group of national stakeholders in Morocco (government, private sector, civil society, media, academia).SCP National Framework
The process of developing the MCPD National Framework Plan for Morocco made it possible to carry out a cross-analysis of production and consumption patterns and to define seven strategic orientations that provide a reference framework and actions to promote SCP in Morocco. Sectorial ten-year action plan for sustainable agriculture and food in Morocco
Six strategic axes have been formulated in the action plan aimed at strengthening Moroccan agricultural policy and the setting up of instruments and mechanisms for the development of a sustainable agriculture and raising awareness of the consumers for purchasing more environmentally friendly food:

Improving the efficiency and sustainability of resources through sustainable production practices;
Integration of climate change (mitigation and adaptation) into agricultural production practices;
Promotion of the circular economy to optimize the flow of material and energy in the production and consumption chains;
Strengthening skills and improving green employability and entrepreneurship in different parts of the food system;
Development of certification instruments, organic labeling and eco-labeling;
Promotion of sustainable food and waste management.

Sectorial ten-year action plan for eco-construction and sustainable buildings in Morocco
The implementation of the action plan and 5 strategic axes aim to promote a global eco-design approach to buildings in Morocco and the progressive development of a public and private park of sustainable buildings. The strategic axes concern all stakeholders involved in the construction and construction sector. The different phases of the process included:

Consideration of resource efficiency in architectural design;
Design of low carbon and climate resilient buildings;
Improvement of the internal environment;
Developing accompanying devices;
Capacity Building for Stakeholders;
 

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the leading global environmental authority that sets the global environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations system, and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment.

Our mission is to provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.

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United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

The Moroccan Sustainable Consumption and Production National Action Plan (SCP-NAP) addresses two priority sectors in Morocco: agriculture and agri-food and eco-construction and sustainable buildings through nationally owned multistakeholder processes. The SCP-NAP of Morocco has been integrated with the Moroccan National Sustainable Development Strategy and its implementation is currently on-going.

The Moroccan Sustainable Consumption and Production National Action Plan

Giant Thermosolar Farm In the Sahara Desert

Impact on the availability of resources as well as their effect on living organisms, ecosystems, and components of the environment.

Ecological Impact

Impacts on the financial condition of a company, as well as the the economicconditions of its stakeholders and on economic systems at local, national, andglobal levels.

Economic Impact

Reduced use of fossil fuel energy sources and/or increased use of renewable energy

Reduce Energy Consumption

Societal Services

Providing electricity and gas services, including traditional and renewable energy generation, natural and manufactured gas and operating gas networks

Energy Utilities and Independent Power Producers

Ensure renewable, reusable, non-toxic resources are utilised as materials and energy in an efficient way

Prioritise regenerative resources

Replace energy sources with less impactful alternatives and enact energy efficiency measures

Regenerative energy

Using renewable energy like solar, wind, etc. or renewable fuels like biomass, etc.

Renewable energy, fuels

Regenerate strategies phase out hazardous or toxic materials and processes and substitute them with regenerative biomass resources. A circular economy aims to mimic natural cycles—by shifting to more regenerative farming practices, for example—while also maximising the share of circular biomass that enters the economy. Regeneration can happen both at the systems level (by designing regenerative processes) as well as at the product level (by switching synthetic to organic fertilisers, for example).

Regenerate

 An amazing transformation has taken place on the dunes below Morocco’s sun-blasted High Atlas mountains.

 Against the yellow sand thousands of curved mirrors, each taller than a human, stand in rows. These are part of a solar-power generating plant that is rapidly changing how the whole continent produces its electricity.

 The mirrors cover an area of roughly 1.4 million square metres. The first phase of this plant generated enough electricity to supply 650,000 people when it was switched on in 2016.

 By 2020, or even sooner, the $9 billion solar power plant is expected to generate 580 megawatts (MW), enough electricity to power over a million homes.

 Perhaps more importantly, the solar farm, near the city of Ouarzazate – known as the gateway to the desert – could also be the doorway to a new era of cleaner energy production in Africa.
         Symbolically, the name of the plant – Noor – is an Arabic word meaning “light” and its success could mark the dawn of a new industry for a country that until recently imported 97% of its energy needs. 

 In the very near future, Morocco aims to become an exporter of power supplies to Europe, as well as to elsewhere on the African continent and the wider Arab-speaking world. 
  The Noor solar panels make a humming noise as they move to track the sun, which shines for up to 3,600 hours a year in the desert, giving Morocco one of the world’s highest levels of solar power potential.

 Noor 1, the first phase built at Ouarzazate, provides 160 MW of the ultimate 580 MW capacity and has already reduced Morocco’s carbon emissions by hundreds of thousands of tonnes a year, its designers say.

 A further three phases of the project are expected to be up and running by the middle of 2018, Mustapha Bakkoury, head of the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy, said in February.

 Morocco plans to generate 42% of its energy from renewables by 2020, rising to 52% by 2030, with solar, wind and hydropower each providing a third of the total.
         The country is well on its way to achieving that goal. Renewable energy was already supplying 34% of the kingdom's electric power production by the end of 2017, according to the government.
  The Noor site has used innovative methods to generate and store the sun’s rays, particularly the latest developments in concentrated solar power.

 The humming, tracking mirrors of the first two phases concentrate the sun’s rays onto a synthetic oil that runs through pipes and heats it to 350°C (662°F), creating water vapour that drives a turbine-powered generator. This is similar to the way fossil fuels are used to generate electricity but replaces the carbon dioxide-making fuels with sunlight as the power source.

 But Noor 3 will consist of a single large tower surrounded by about seven thousand flat mirrors that will track and reflect the sun’s rays towards a receiver at its pinnacle.

 Molten salts inside the tower will capture and store the heat, so there will be no need for the synthetic oil. Experts say this is a more efficient way to store the energy of the sun’s heat and needs much less space than the current arrays of mirrors. 

 Peak demand is reached after the sun has set, and phases 1 and 2 store some of the energy in molten sands. These can keep producing power for up to three hours. 

 However, the storage capacity in later phases is expected to rise to between seven and eight hours after sundown.
         The construction of solar capacity on such a large scale could have important implications for the future of power generation on the continent as a whole, according to one of Noor’s biggest backers.

 Mafalda Duarte, the manager of Climate Investment Funds (CIF), told The Guardian in 2016 that: “Morocco is showing real leadership and bringing the cost of the technology down in the process.”

 Other investors in the Ouarzazate solar complex include German investment bank KfW, the African Development Bank, the World Bank and the European Investment Bank (EIB).
  The EIB is the European Union’s infrastructure investment arm and its backing of the project, which by some estimates represents up to 60% of its value, reflect hopes in both Morocco and the EU that the power will flow beyond Morocco’s borders.

 Meanwhile, across the continent, countries including Ghana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and South Africa are investing in solar power projects that produce cleaner electricity than fossil fuels, increase energy security and will provide reliable sources of light and heat to many for the first time.

 This article has been updated to correct an error regarding the area covered by the solar plant.



 Imagine a solar plant the size of around 3,500 soccer fields, an area almost equivalent to that of San Francisco. Or a giant field of around 2 million mirrors that turn sunlight into enough clean energy to supply around 6% of an entire country. Fiction this is not. This is Morocco’s Noor Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Plant, the largest solar complex of its kind in the world. Located in the southern city of Ouarzazate, the more-than-6,000-acre facility is a stunning display of Morocco’s renewable energy ambitions. Noor is the first CSP site in Morocco, and its 580-megawatt output is accelerating the country’s bid for a 52% renewable energy mix by 2030. It also represents a significant development in global CSP capacity, which in 2016, stood at only 4.8 gigawatts (GW). CSP is not your run-of-the-mill solar technology. The Noor complex uses rows of sun-tracking mirrors, called “heliostats,” that direct sunlight onto a receiver. The receiver heats up a specialized cocktail of molten salts and fluids, sometimes up to 100 degrees Celsius (around 212 degrees Fahrenheit), which then sets in motion steam-powered turbines that produce energy. This liquid concoction gives CSP another distinct advantage: unlike most solar photovoltaic (PV) facilities, CSP provides clean energy around the clock. “What is special about this CSP is what we call the thermal energy storage systems that we can store the energy during the day and keep it until the night,” said Youssef Stitou, a project manager and engineer with MASEN, Morocco’s renewable energy ministry. “CSP is like a power plant with huge batteries.” Stitou’s own career path shows that Noor, besides serving as a clean energy source for approximately 2 million Moroccans, is providing something equally valuable: opportunity. “I started my career in the beginning of 2011. First in the oil and gas industry, and then I switched to renewable energies,” said Stitou. “Fossil resources will not last forever.” With a one-year-old at home, Stitou has more than just a paycheck on his mind. “Once [you become] a father, you’re not working for yourself. You start working for your family.” CSP is also a family affair for Zineb Aghzou, a 25-year-old engineer at Noor. “My husband is also at Noor,” Aghzou said. “We almost have the same plans, the same path.” She has worked in other industries, but she knows where her future lies. "[The CSP] solar plant is the best thing that I've experienced." Aghzou is a native of Ouarzazate, a city that sits at the doorstep of the Sahara. Its arid landscape has served as a backdrop for countless films and television shows, and as a well-trodden entry point for tourists embarking on desert excursions. Lately, however, visitors are coming in search of an altogether new experience: Noor itself. “We will make Noor Ouarzazate not only a site of industrial plants, but also a destination for scientific tourism,” said Mustapha Sellam, Noor’s site director. “In order to make the region more attractive, and to [have] people in the future [come] not only to see the cinema studios and the sand, but also maybe to see the Noor Ouarzazate site.” With every visitor, it is hoped that the facility will inspire new advocates for renewable energy. “Now, with this new project, people get more and more, let’s say, informed about the importance of solar energy, about the importance of the CSP technology, the storage technology, for their daily lives,” Youssef Stitou explained. “Morocco showed to all the other countries that it’s possible, whatever your positions in the world…to succeed.”  Supplies over 2 million people with clean energy Reduces Morocco's dependence on foreign energy imports Domestically produces clean energy Benefits local economy with direct and indirect employment opportunities Reduces CO2 emissions Increases Morocco's share of renewable energy De-risked large CSP solar plants around the world 

Marrakesh

Morocco’s Noor Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plant, located in the southern city of Ouarzazate, is one of the largest solar complexes in the world and has the size of around 3,500 soccer fields, an area almost equivalent to that of San Francisco. Morocco aims to become an exporter of power supplies to Europe, as well as to elsewhere on the African continent and the wider Arab-speaking world. The government plans to generate 52% of its energy from renewables by 2030.

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Circle Economy and ICLEI have partnered up to initiate the go to knowledge hub of case studies about the circular economy in cities. The Cities Collection is a repository of case studies that demonstrate the role of cities in the circular transition, and includes policies, business cases and research articles. Cases in the Collection flow into an ecosystem of digital products which support users in transitioning cities to circularity, for example [Ganbatte](https://ganbatte.world/cities/) and <a href="https://circulars.iclei.org/" target="_blank">ICLEI Circulars</a>, both part of the <a href="https://circulars.iclei.org/circle-lab-for-cities/" target = _blank">Circle Lab for Cities Programme.</a>

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Circular Cities

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Impact on the health and happiness of human populations

Well-being

Efficiency gains on operations or transactions either through cultural or technological shifts

Productivity

Impact on the ease of innovation, and facilitating uptake of innovations

Innovation

Collecting waste from households and businesses by means of refuse bins, wheeled bins, containers, etc., and providing treatment, incineration, materials recovery and reclamation, and disposal of hazardous and non-hazardous waste

Waste Management

Utilise waste streams as a source of secondary resources and recover waste for reuse and recycling

Use waste as a resource

Enacting measures that optimise energy use

Energy efficiency

Visions and Ambitions

Govern the Transition

Institutional design to enable circularity

 Convene Towards Action

Redesign systems to lay the foundation for circular activities and enable the transition to a circular economy 

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Rethink

**Harmonize with nature** by promoting infrastructure, production systems and sourcing that allows natural ecosystems to thrive




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Eliminate waste by maximizing the recovery of resources at the end of the use phase so that they can be reintroduced into production processes


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Recover

Prioritize solutions that use the power of functioning ecosystems as infrastructure to provide natural services to benefit society and the environment; consider nature-based replacements for grey infrastructure.

Prioritise renewable resources 

The food system nourishes populations and employs 50% of the global workforce, but:
- it currently drives a quarter of the overshoot on the climate change planetary boundary due to its greenhouse gas (GHG) production, 
- animal farming alone uses over one-quarter of all land, equivalent to the size of the Americas,
- nearly a quarter of freshwater resources are lost due to rampant food waste, and
- it is the single largest driver of biodiversity loss.

A circular food system must address the whole value chain, from production to consumption to waste management. The four key solutions for the food system are:
- Put healthier, satiating foods first: Prioritise satiating and healthy foods with a lower environmental impact—ideally shifting calories from meat, fish, and dairy towards cereals, fruits, vegetables, and nuts.
- Go local, seasonal, and organic: Prioritise the production and consumption of local, seasonal, and organic produce (sometimes in combination with GMO to reduce pests and disease loss on crops), which can lead to a significantly reduced need for chemical inputs, fuels, and processing services that contribute to environmental impacts.
- Mainstream regenerative agriculture: Scale up agricultural practices that regenerate ecosystems, recirculate nutrients and sequester carbon by design. 
- End avoidable food waste: Minimise food loss and valorise waste following the food waste hierarchy along the supply chain and at the consumer level through better management of transport and storage, more refrigeration and smart planning, and technology at the consumer and food service levels.



🍏 Food Systems

Cities consume about 75% of global energy and emit between 50% and 60% of global greenhouse gases (UN-Habitat). To reduce the negative impact of their energy consumption, cities need to shift away from fossil fuels and move towards renewable energy sources. Such a shift will help cities work towards their climate change mitigation and adaptation action plans. Renewable energy technologies such as wind, water, solar, and geothermal can also help improve access to energy in vulnerable and marginalised neighbourhoods through, for example, decentralised, off-grid solutions.

Renewable energy technologies can harvest the energy in nature’s processes, such as wind, and solar radiation and geothermal heat, that can be replenished within a human lifespan. In contrast, fossil fuels are materials that are not replenished within a human lifespan and are combusted for energy, losing the fuel material and resulting in emissions.

Local governments can develop sustainable energy plans, considering different energy resources and requirements, to develop a robust strategy for the development of renewable energy technologies and infrastructure throughout the city. They can also institute specific legislation and tax systems to regulate energy production and consumption, incentivise research and development of cleaner, more efficient technologies. Via Power Purchase Agreements cities can buy renewable energy from green energy providers and fix the price in order to provide security to financial institutions to finance renewable energy infrastructure. Furthermore, increasing awareness and facilitating capacity-building on planning urban sustainable energy projects can help the uptake of clean energy across the city by different stakeholders—from citizens to businesses and institutions. Facilitating collaboration, then, will be crucial, since private companies operate most of the world’s energy systems.


⚡ Energy Systems

The built environment, including housing, commercial buildings, and the necessary infrastructure for mobility, is essential for our livelihoods, but:
- the extraction of minerals used to produce construction materials is responsible for a quarter of global land use change,
- approximately 40% of global GHG emissions can be attributed to buildings’ construction, use and demolition, and
- construction and demolition processes drive nearly one-third of all material consumption. 

Making the built environment more circular must prioritise a heavy reduction in material use—while also closing the loop on materials and bringing secondary and renewable material choices to the fore. Our four key solutions for the built environment are:
- Make the most of what already exists: Make the most of existing materials by reusing, repurposing, upgrading and renovating following circular approaches. Where new builds are needed, use secondary materials and be as efficient as possible with urban planning solutions that follow circular design principles so that buildings can be reused, repurposed, and easily disassembled in the future.
- Be as energy efficient as possible: From the design phase, utilise circular strategies to create material- and energy efficient buildings. Couple these designs with a rollout of clean energy solutions, and prioritise energy-efficient appliances and retrofitting. 
- Utilise secondary materials: Maximise the high-value reuse of buildings and components where possible. Ideally, enable the utilisation of construction and demolition outputs and ensure that as much of it as possible is recycled to avoid the need for virgin materials, such as sand and gravel.
- Prioritise circular materials and approaches: Transition to using renewable wood, timber or cross-laminated timber instead of steel and concrete, or move to other locally available materials. Utilise mainstream modular construction and prioritise lightweight frames and structures to reduce cement and steel use, as well as green roofs where possible.



🏢 Built Environment

Manufactured goods, such as vehicles, textiles, appliances and equipment and their associated production processes are big employers but:
- production processes often rely on fossil fuels and currently drive one-third of the overshoot on the climate change planetary boundary due to its GHG production, 
- material- and energy-intensive industrial activities are linked to deforestation and drive 15% on both the land use and freshwater planetary boundaries, 
- manufacturing goods results in substantial amounts of hazardous industrial waste and leaks chemicals into the environment.

Here, circular solutions must tackle the full value chain, but material demand must also shrink: this will necessitate a societal shift to favouring sufficiency over excess and reducing consumption to sustainable levels. Our four key solutions for manufactured goods are:
- Mainstream industrial symbiosis and efficiency : Achieve process improvements, scrap diversion and reduction in yield losses through greater industrial symbiosis and efficiency. Foster tighter collaboration within and between industries to deliver powerful material and emissions savings.
- Extend the lifetime of machinery, equipment, and goods: Maximise the lifetime of goods that serve our daily needs to bring a number of environmental benefits. 
- Buy what's needed: Reduce the number of purchases of common electronic goods, appliances, and other equipment to sufficiency levels. 
- Eschew fast fashion in favour of sustainable textiles: Drastically reduce new clothing purchases. All used clothing should go on to be repaired, reused or, if needed, recycled appropriately. Prioritise natural and local textile manufacturing, as well as higher-quality and more durable garments. 




👕📱 Consumer Goods

The demand for transport is rising globally—but current modes are heavily material- and fossil-fuels-intensive. Emissions from the transport system could grow by 60% by 2050, and transport is the number-one user of oil worldwide. GHG emissions result not only in warming global temperatures, but also in ocean acidification, which has severe consequences for entire ecosystems and further destabilises our climate. The transport system also drives land-use change and biodiversity loss through the development of infrastructure—also releasing harmful pollutants into the ocean. Key circular solutions:

- Embrace and enable car-free lifestyles
- Invest in high-quality public transport
- Rethink unnecessary air travel
- Electrify remaining vehicles

🚌 Mobility Systems

Communities

Governments

Cycle strategies aim to cycle and reuse materials at their highest value: they maximise the volume of secondary materials re-entering the economy, ultimately minimising the need for virgin material inputs and therefore also narrowing flows. Of course, virgin materials will always be needed to a degree: all materials degrade and can’t be cycled infinitely, use energy, and require blending with virgin materials to maintain strength and functionality.

Cycle

The Circular City Actions Framework provides urban changemakers with five complementary strategies they can use to start working towards a more circular system. 

The framework is action-based to provide users with concrete strategic directions and showcase the desired outcomes of each strategy. 
The framework consists of five complementary **strategies**, under which **sub-strategies** provide further detail. Finally, each sub-strategy consists of a diversity of tangible **solutions** which are framed in relation to key thematic areas. 

Note: solutions are currently focused on:
- 🍏 **Food systems**
- 🏢  **Built environment**
- 👕📱  **Consumer goods**
- ⚡ **Energy Systems**
- 🚌 **Mobility Systems**
- 💧 **Water Systems**

More thematic areas are coming soon...

'Click through each of the five strategy cards below to explore the framework and circular economy case studies in more depth!'



This framework was developed in collaboration with ICLEI, Metabolic and Ellen MacArthur Foundation with support from the MAVA Foundation. Read more about it [here]( https://circulars.iclei.org/action-framework/). 



Circular City Actions Framework

An action-based framework for local governments working towards circular cities

Thematic Areas

City Stakeholders

      Who We Are Leadership, organization, and history   What We Do Projects, products, and services   Where We Work   Understanding Poverty Global data and statistics, research and publications, and topics in poverty and development   Work With Us Jobs, procurement, training, and events   COVID-19      

          Strategic Outcomes     Start Date Q4  2017   End Date     Funding Source partner   Actual Budget (USD) 824,000   Budget Percentage %   Actual Expenditure (USD)    Status Active   GGGI Share (USD)    Poverty and Gender Policy Markers    Name of Client (Lead/Prime implementer if GGGI is part of a consortium)    Participating Organization (Funding/donor)    Name of consortium members, if any    Thematic Area                The Kingdom of Morocco is acutely vulnerable to climate change and is prone to environmental constraints (water scarcity, land degradation, energy dependence, pollution, natural resource depletion). These increasing pressures are a catalyst for rural migration, further straining urban areas and their limited capacities and resources. Sixty one percent of Moroccans live in urban areas. Eight cities have a population of over 500,000 people, compared to three in 1985. It is expected that two thirds of Morocco’s population will be living in cities by 2020. Morocco’s economic and social development policies have been challenged to create jobs and reduce social and spatial disparities. Given these combined environmental and socio-economic factors, a paradigm shift is required to develop a sustainable and inclusive economy driven by the private sector and civil society. Key challenges are thus to foster inclusive green growth that addresses these risks and issues by creating an enabling environment for investment in environmental goods and services and unlocking financing to support Morocco’s transformation to a green economy.
The National Sustainable Development Strategy (NSDS) is a policy framework adopted by the government in June 2017. It encompasses the vision stated in the National Charter for the Environment and Sustainable Development (CNEDD), and incorporates the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs), as well as the Government of Morocco (GoM’s) recently adopted vision for advanced regionalization. The NSDS is a low-carbon development strategy that aims to coordinate the related objectives of all sectorial strategies and action plans. The agriculture, energy (including transportation), industrial processes, and waste (both solid and liquid) sectors together account for the largest sources of GHG emissions. The NDCs specify an unconditional mitigation target of a 17% reduction in GHG emissions by 2030 compared to a BAU scenario.
Additionally, both rural and urban development issues are emphasized in the NSDS, with a focus on conceptualizing territories as sustainable ecosystems. The NSDS prioritizes environmentally sensitive regions, and improving design, coordination and implementation of territorial interventions and rural-urban linkages. These examples provide a strong foundation for the GGGI Morocco country program, which encompasses green territorial development, the circular and social solidarity economy, and localizing the NSDS.   
       On November 23, 2015, the government of the Kingdom of Morocco and GGGI organized a partnership inception workshop and began collaborative work with a scoping analysis identifying areas for green growth in the priority sectors of water, waste, energy and agriculture. As a result of this scoping study, the focus of GGGI’s work in Morocco is to support the implementation of Morocco’s National Sustainable Development Strategy (NSDS) and the development of the country’s green territories policy. GGGI is now in the process of finalizing its five-year Country Planning Framework (CPF) in close concertation with Morocco’s key institutional and in-country partners.
On October 24, 2017, during a workshop designed to deliver sustainable development at sub-national level, the Kingdom of Morocco and GGGI signed a Memorandum of Understanding to further strengthen cooperation between the two institutions.   
       PROJECT OUTPUTS FOR 2018
Two green city and territory implementation projects designed
National trainings on implementation of green cities development and financing green cities
Regional knowledge exchange on green cities developmentPROJECT OUTCOMES FOR 2018Government of Morocco (GoM) or relevant financier leverage finance for green city territorial projects     GGGI supports the Government of Morocco (GoM) in the creation of a model, low-carbon city by developing methodologies, action plans and implementation tools to establish green and socially inclusive cities and territories, and designing green territory projects for financing and implementation. The impact will be to fulfill part of Morocco’s NDC no. 9 which is to develop a model, low-carbon city centered on optimized energy, transport and waste management. To develop green territories, GGGI provides technical assistance to the GoM to improve energy efficiency, sustainable mobility and transportation, increase the rate of recycled materials through sorting-recycling-recovery in order to develop waste-to-resource and waste-to-energy opportunities, and increase the volume of wastewater treatment and reuse . Consequently, local capacities and data collection and analysis, will be strengthened and knowledge on green city development will be increased.   
 

Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI)

To tackle the environmental challenges and building resilience for cities in Morocco, the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) supports the Government of Morocco in the creation of a low-carbon city model by developing methodologies, action plans and implementation tools to establish green and socially inclusive cities and territories by designing green territory projects for financing and implementation.