Climate Action Morocco Project #50713

Offset Your Emissions: High Atlas Carbon Solution

by High Atlas Foundation

Project Report | Aug 18, 2021
Moroccan Innovation and the Journey to Solar Vehicle Races

By Kissai Sami | HAF Volunteer

The Kingdom of Morocco has a reputation for its diverse climate and natural resources, among which is solar energy. In fact, Morocco hosts the world’s largest concentrated solar power plant, the Noor Complex Solar Power Plant, which is located in the Sahara Desert. These factors make the Kingdom a hub for research and development.

The students at the School of Mines of Rabat (ENSMR) have begun a new innovative project, the objective of which is to develop an efficient car that uses energy from solar panels. Created in 2014, Mines Rabat Solar Team, the group designing the car, is composed of engineers from various fields, such as industrial engineering, electromechanics, energy, and IT. Since then, prototypes have been created. After conducting trials on the first prototype “Fennec”, the team realized that it did not meet its expectations. Consequently, they have produced a second prototype called “Eleadora 1.” Then, the last prototype, “Eleadora 2,” was developed. This car is made from carbon fiber, which makes it rigid and light. It can reach a speed of 120 km/hour. The solar panels used for the car are monocrystalline solar panels. They are characterized by their efficiency, which can range from 17% to 22%. The silicon-made solar cells are long-lasting, with a 25-year warranty.

Mines Rabat Solar Team participated in the Moroccan Solar Challenge in 2016 and 2019. This event is an annual car race between the cities of Ben Guerir and Marrakech. The team took second place in the race. And will be in attendance at the first edition of the solar challenge Morocco, held in Agadir this year.

The team is also expected to participate in one of the most renowned competitions, the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. This Australian race, created in 1987, is for experimental vehicles powered by solar energy.

The High Atlas Foundation appreciates the innovation demonstrated by these students toward the advancement of renewable energies in Morocco.

So far, three of HAF’s nurseries are equipped with solar water pumps that water the tens of thousands of seeds planted. They also provide clean drinking water to local communities. This results in a 100% eco-friendly process.

The 1.66 million seeds that HAF planted in its 12 nurseries around Morocco this past planting season, will be transplanted with farming families beginning in December. In doing so, we aim to not only empower local people but also to help offset global carbon emissions. HAF’s carbon offset program provides an avenue for both individuals and institutions, including corporations to offset their carbon footprint by planting trees in Morocco, thereby adhering to a unique model and social standard. This initiative will contribute to the movement to reverse climate change while helping to support marginalized communities by providing a stable and sustainable source of income.

As efforts provided by advocates of renewable energy are undeniably important, offsetting carbon is also key in order to ensure environmental priorities are being acted upon while global systems and collective lifestyles are still in the process of shifting toward greater sustainability.

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Apr 20, 2021
Offsets in Lockdown: Why COVID-19 Calls for Social Global Carbon Credits

By Finn Grundmann | Scientific Consultant

A Unified Emissions Trading System

With a value of $299 billion, the trade of carbon credits has become one of the fastest growing markets globally. But with growth comes complexity and a global challenge. In working with the market’s many requirements, rules, and standards, I learned quickly that both simplicity and partnership are urgently needed to stabilize the market and to ensure a generation of socially responsible and sustainable carbon credits.

To comprehend the larger market of credit trading, understanding two main systems is crucial. First, there is the compliance market where companies buy carbon credits issued and sold by their governments. And second, there is the voluntary market where companies can buy credits from sustainable projects worldwide. Regulations that require organizations to buy in the compliance market, as well as the price per ton of carbon, depend entirely on national laws and jurisdiction.

In essence, carbon credits are sold on two codependent markets, where both supply and demand are regulated by national governments. In the European Union, for example, companies in the energy and aviation sector are required to buy compliance credits. But in all other sectors, companies can choose to offset their emissions on the voluntary market. The carbon market currently conjoins several dozen independent systems with a large set of requirements and laws. This complexity poses a global challenge, demanding international solutions.

Reimagining small-scale carbon

Skimming through credit criteria in the dimmed light of my lockdown-office, I realized that this confusing mosaic of credits and laws favors large-scale plantations on the voluntary market. The issuance of voluntary credits has become time intensive and more expensive, which leaves smaller NGOs at a great disadvantage. The project requirements are set by certifiers or standards that seem largely unaware of the challenges involved in tree planting. Consequently, most certifiers complicate the process of selling credits rather than facilitating the sequestration of CO2.

It was when I began working with the High Atlas Foundation that I saw first-hand how voluntary credits can successfully fuel sustainable development. The revenue generated by carbon credit sales, for example, was invested into the planting of trees with rural Moroccan women, which in turn produced new carbon credits. This simple cycle sequesters carbon through the empowerment of women. It is an approach built entirely on the participation of local communities by planting custom-made, site-specific forest systems. This process succeeds thanks to the involvement of the people in identifying simple, personalized solutions.

Small-scale community projects can solve global problems. But, surprisingly, while the international community understands the importance of small but scalable solutions, certifiers for voluntary carbon credits still favour large-scale projects with only few requirements for social standards. A simple system with just one set of international rules and local participation at its core could help break down the long and expensive path to certify carbon credits.

At the High Atlas Foundation, we aspire to partner with tree-planting organizations worldwide. We imagine a future where voluntary credit producers define the price per ton of carbon and where requirements are crafted in partnership with certifiers.

Shifting tides in a challenged market

In the midst of crafting a more socially inclusive offset system, however, the voluntary carbon market took a great hit. When the Clean Development Mechanism expired in December 2020, the market’s crucial foundation vanished into thin air. The 26^th United Nations Climate Change Conference could have built a transitional framework unifying or aligning all global emissions trading systems, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference was postponed. Until the next conference in November 2021, credit producers, certifiers, and offsetting companies are forced to work within the framework of an outdated, expired system that is left afloat in a chaotic sea of proposed future markets.

While most national compliance markets remain intact, global cooperation has decreased, leaving devastating effects on the voluntary carbon system. Due to the lack of certainty in the voluntary market, emitting companies prefer to purchase credits from their governments, which in turn prevents many billions of dollars from reaching planting sites with propensity for socioeconomic development in low-income communities. Thus, instead of building one unified, simple mechanism, the COVID-19 pandemic has nurtured a vast multiplicity of national compliance systems, destabilizing the international voluntary credit market.

But really, the solution is simple - a unified standard for carbon credits and realistic prices per ton of carbon. How? By engaging people with the carbon market.

I believe that by November 2021, when the United Nations establishes a new market for carbon credits, we must adopt a simple system built on partnership and participation. Only with a simple and transparent market can carbon credits become part of the global solution to climate change -- a solution that we at the High Atlas Foundation put into action.

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