Climate Migration to Affect 5.4% of Moroccans by 2050

Rabat - 1.9 million people in Morocco are projected to internally migrate on the backdrop of climate change in Morocco by 2050, according to a Groundswell report.

Rabat – 1.9 million people in Morocco are projected to internally migrate on the backdrop of climate change in Morocco by 2050, according to a Groundswell report.

The report, published in late 2021, specifies that in the best-case scenario, climate change will cause at least 10% of all internal migration by 2050 in Morocco. A worst-case scenario puts the figure at 52% of all internal migration.

People currently residing in central foothill regions including Marrakech, Casablanca, the Safi coast, and south of Agadir, are expected to be exposed to a decline in water reserves and crop productivity.

Affected by international climate change trends, Morocco’s climate is set to become hotter and drier, with the average temperature projected to increase to 3.5°C by 2050, according to World Bank data.

Commenting on the increasingly more common floods, droughts, and heatwaves, the report notes that climate change is set to exacerbate these trends.

Climate change will also aggravate water scarcity in Morocco, with droughts becoming more recurrent and more severe, according to the report.

Morocco’s water reserves are expected to be further affected by snowpack reduction on the Atlas mountains.

The data compiled in recent months and years point to such a fundamentally bleak picture if nothing is done to reverse or at least mitigate the frightening pace of human-induced climate change. Should the climate crisis continue to progress at its current pace, the report concludes, forests in northern Morocco will become vulnerable to deserts.

Morocco’s long coastline is vulnerable to rising sea levels, threatening ecological habitats, as well as economic and touristic activities. Low-lying land in northern Morocco is especially at risk of flooding, notes the report.

While some governments appear to be showing the political will to mitigate the effects of climate change, it remains unclear to what extent these new commitments can mitigate the crises that are hardest-felt in poor countries, especially in Africa.