Summary of “Greenwashing an occupation - How Morocco's renewable energy projects in occupied Western Sahara may prolong the conflict over Africa's last colony”

Published in Justice on Trial: Law, Politics, and Western Sahara, (International Platform of Jurists for East Timor, Netherlands 2022)

Sara Eyckmans, Coordinator, Western Sahara Resource Watch

Erik Hagen Director, the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara

In the introduction the authors state:

Morocco is the only country in North Africa without its own petroleum resources and is also the most significant energy importer in the region. To compensate and to meet its increasing energy demands, Morocco is rolling out sizeable renewable energy projects in the part of Western Sahara that it has occupied since 1975.

For instance, 22 windmills supplied by the German company Siemens supply 95% of the energy required for the highly controversial plunder of non-renewable minerals from Western Sahara. Green energy production is making Morocco's plunder of the territory even more lucrative.

Siemens and the Italian company Enel are those most heavily involved. They win Moroccan tenders in Western Sahara by partnering with the energy company owned by the king of Morocco. When the Moroccan royal palace – which regulates the energy market – receives large energy contracts in the territory, it comes at a high price for the UN peace process in Western Sahara. By exporting the energy to Morocco proper, the country and the royal family strengthen their connection to the territory. Would the king be interested in the process of self-determination and decolonization in Western Sahara when he, himself, is benefiting from the illegal presence of the Moroccan army and security apparatus there?

The legal owners of the land, the Saharawis, have never consented to the Moroccan and other foreign projects. While half of the territory's original population was forced to flee the Moroccan invaders and leading opponents of the socio-economic marginalization of the Saharawis in their own homeland are serving life sentences in Moroccan jails, Morocco can brand itself internationally as best in class on the transition to a renewable future.

While the UN is prevented from solving the Western Sahara conflict by Morocco and its close allies in the UN Security Council, a new colonialist project is being undertaken: renewable energy.

The authors explain that the Kingdom is heavily dependent on the energy produced by renewable resources in Western Sahara "In this context," they note, "the potential of Western Sahara for Morocco is massive. According to a Moroccan think-tank, the Policy Center for the New South, "each km² of desert receives an annual amount of solar energy equivalent to 1.5 million barrels of oil, i.e., a theoretical capacity of all the world's deserts to supply several hundred times the planet's electricity needs. Nearly 60% of the country's solar and wind power production (sic) is concentrated in the southern provinces of the Kingdom, the group claims."

The authors go on to state that "it illustrates how vital the development of Western Sahara is, seen from a Moroccan perspective"  They note that "a more independent source, the World Bank, in 2020 assessed the offshore wind power potential of Western Sahara to be 169 percent larger than that of Morocco – emphasizing, yet again, the enormous importance of the occupied territory for Morocco's much-desired energy self-sufficiency."

Besides renewable energy, the authors cite the exploitation of phosphates from the Boucraa mine and fisheries products. With respect to fisheries, they note that a substantial volume of fish ends up being exported directly to Spain and that the frozen fish sector in Western Sahara is more extensive than in Morocco proper. "In 2018, 101 out of the 194 fish freezing companies operating in “Morocco” were, in fact, established in occupied Western Sahara" They further note that the single largest destination of the lucrative exports of fish meal produced in the territory is Turkey, and that the value of such fish meal might even exceed that of the phosphates exported to international markets.

The authors cite the rationales most often used by companies seeking to prosper from the illegal exploitation of such resources: that solar and wind power are renewable, not finite, resources, and that they are supporting the economic development of the region.  They note that these rationales have been debunked by the European Courts, the UN and the African Union.

"The Court of Justice of the European Union has issued four consecutive rulings from 2015 through 2018, all establishing that Morocco has no sovereignty over Western Sahara, nor any international mandate to administer it. The Court has concluded that Western Sahara is separate and distinct from Morocco. Consequently, EU agreements with Morocco cannot be applied to Western Sahara unless with the consent of the people of the territory. The Court specifically rejects the idea that the potential 'benefits' of economic partnerships have any relevance when assessing their legality: what matters is that the people of the territory have agreed to them.

"In October 2015, the UN Committee overseeing States' implementation of the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights expressed concerns that the Saharawis are indeed particularly affected by poverty. The Committee urged Morocco to respect the Saharawis' right to prior consent concerning the exploitation of their resources. In 2016, the UN Human Rights Committee echoed those conclusions. It called on Morocco to obtain the "prior, free and informed consent [from the people of Western Sahara] to the realization of developmental projects and [resource] extraction operations."

"The African Union (issued a Legal Opinion in 2015 concluding that "the people of Western Sahara and their legitimate representatives must not only be consulted but they must consent and effectively participate in reaching any agreement that involves the exploitation of natural resources in the territory of Western Sahara. The AU Peace and Security Council has condemned the exploitation of Western Sahara's natural resources, calling it "a hostile act likely to perpetuate the conflict and colonialism in Western Sahara.

"The fact that Morocco has no legal claim to the territory was underlined by Spain's highest court in 2014, which concluded that Spain is still formally the administering power of Western Sahara, as it had never properly decolonized the territory."

Accordingly, the authors conclude that the exploitation of the resources of Western Sahara by Morocco "violates the right of non-self-governing peoples to self-determination and [International Human Rights Law]."