Media release
UN Climate Change Conference 2016 in Marrakesh: Morocco cements the occupation of Western Sahara, which violates human rights, with dirty deals for supposedly clean energy. Siemens wind turbines are disrupting the UN peace process in the Western Sahara conflict. A detailed report reveals the dirty links.
On the occasion of the World Climate Conference in Marrakesh (7-18 November 2016), Western Sahara Resource Watch (WSRW) and terre des hommes schweiz criticize the Moroccan programme to expand renewable energies as an obstacle to the UN peace process in the Western Sahara conflict. Morocco is committed to renewable energy. However, most of the wind farms advertised at the climate summit are not being built in Morocco, but in Western Sahara. Western Sahara has been under Moroccan occupation in violation of international law since 1975. More than half of the inhabitants fled at that time and around 165,000 Sahrawis are still forced to live in refugee camps in neighboring Algeria. In addition, the wind energy generated in Western Sahara supplies 95 percent of the electricity for the ecologically highly controversial phosphate mining in the region.
Critics serve life sentences
Together with the Italian company Enel, Siemens is the company most heavily involved in the construction of wind energy projects in Western Sahara. “With dirty deals for supposedly clean electricity, Siemens is cementing the causes of flight,” criticizes terre des hommes schweiz campaign coordinator Sylvia Valentin. Critics of the exploitation of raw materials by the royal family in the occupied territory are serving life sentences in Morocco’s prisons.
Close partnership with the royal family
Siemens and Enel win Morocco’s tenders thanks to their partnership with the energy company owned by the Moroccan king. “The conclusion of major energy contracts with the Moroccan royal family comes at a high price for the UN peace process in Western Sahara. As long as the Moroccan king himself profits from the illegal presence of the Moroccan army, he will continue to undermine the UN’s efforts to resolve the Western Sahara conflict,” says Erik Hagen of Western Sahara Resource Watch.
Siemens involved in violations of international law
The Siemens project in Foum El Qued has come under particular criticism. There, 22 wind turbines supply the electricity for the extraction of phosphate and transport to the port via a 100-kilometer-long conveyor belt. The export of products from Western Sahara is generally seen as a violation of international law. The people of the territory have the right to manage their own resources. “A single shipload of phosphate can be worth more than a third of the total annual humanitarian aid for the refugees from Western Sahara. They are actually the rightful owners of the raw materials,” explains Sylvia Valentin.
A quarter on illegally occupied territory by 2020
The WSRW report “Windy business – What Morocco and Siemens want to hide at the COP22 climate conference in Marrakesh” (download below), which was published for the climate summit, describes Morocco’s plans to double its national wind energy production by 2020 with an additional 1000 megawatts. 40 percent of the additional capacity is to be developed in the occupied territories. The controversial energy production from solar and wind in Western Sahara already accounts for almost seven percent of Morocco’s total energy production. This share could rise to more than 25 percent by 2020.
Green energy helps to override human rights
Western Sahara Resource Watch is calling on all companies involved to end their infrastructure projects in Western Sahara that are linked to the Moroccan government so as not to hinder the UN peace process. It must also be made clear that climate-friendly green energy must not override human rights. “Clean energy must also be produced using clean methods legally, technically and morally,” demands Erik Hagen.
Contact:
Sylvia Valentin, Campaign Coordinator terre des hommes schweiz
+ 41 (0)61 338 91 45 (direct phone)
sylvia.valentin(at)terredeshommes.ch
