Morocco, under the leadership of King Mohammed VI, has put the protection of the environment at the core of all its public policies and development strategies, said Chairperson of the Mohammed VI Foundation for Environment Protection, Princess lalla Hasna.
Princess Lalla Hasna made the remarks as she who was co-chairing, Thursday in Bonn, with executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Patricia Espinosa, the high-level session on Education Day, held under the theme “Global partnerships to combat climate change through education.”
Addressing the session, Princess lalla Hasna who represented King Mohammed VI at the COP23 summit said the rights to a healthy environment and sustainable development were enshrined in the 2011 Moroccan constitution.
Later on, Morocco enacted the National Charter for Environment and Sustainable Development that set the basic goals of State’s action regarding environment preservation. In this connection, the culture of environment protection was included in education and training syllabuses, she recalled.
As it made of the protection of the environment one of the pillars of public policies and development strategies, Morocco also endeavors to honor its regional or international commitments under a multilateral framework, and has strived resolutely to reinforce the momentum gathered since the conclusion of the Paris Agreement, Princess Lalla Hasna said.
She also underlined the importance of COP Education days as a special platform to share expertize and educational methods in the fight against global warming, pointing out that since its inception sixteen years ago, the Mohammed VI Foundation for Environment Protection has been involved in awareness-raising campaigns and environment education, making sure to target young generations.
In this vein, the foundation, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education national, set up two landmark programs on environment education: “Eco Schools” and “Young Reporters for Environment”, she recalled.
She acknowledged however that in Morocco as in many other countries, the general public is still alien to the concept of environment protection, that the results achieved by her foundation do not rise to the existing challenges, and that the awareness raising under way in Morocco does not reach all Moroccan citizens.
Therefore, she said, in the field of environment education much remains to be done.
On the sidelines of the Education Day, Princess Lalla Hasna chaired over the signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the executive secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Mohammed VI Foundation.
The MoU defines the areas of cooperation between the two parties for the implementation of article 6 of the UNFCCC on education, training, public awareness, public access to information and international cooperation, as well as the promotion, development and implementation of education and training programs on climate change (workshops, conferences, teleconferences …).
This Memorandum of Understanding also focuses on increasing the level of public awareness, understanding and dissemination of information on climate change issues, through the development and use of innovative electronic learning tools, as well as promoting cooperation and regional and international networking as part of “Education for Sustainable Development”.
Since 2009, the Mohammed VI Foundation for Environment Protection has been an observer member of the UNFCCC and actively participates in the COPs meetings.
