Morocco: The Ouarzazate Solar Plant - Triumphal 'Green' Capitalism and the Privatization of Nature

23 March 2016
opinion

Despite the allure of the solar mega-project, the environmental/climate justice movement must question the Morocco's propaganda and the emergent dominant global discourse around environmental governance to which it is linked. The urgent questions about this project include: Who owns what? Who does what? Who gets what? Who wins and who loses? And whose good is being served?

Ouarzazate is a beautiful town in south-central Morocco, well worth visiting. It is an important holiday destination and has been nicknamed the "door of the desert." It is also known as a famed location for international filmmaking, where films such as 'Lawrence of Arabia' (1962), 'The Mummy' (1999), 'Gladiator' (2000), and 'Kingdom of Heaven' (2005) were shot, as was part of the television series 'Game of Thrones'. That is not all what Ouarzazate has to offer as its name has recently been associated with a solar mega-project that is supposedly going to end Morocco's dependency on energy imports, provide electricity to more than a million Moroccans, and put the country on a "green path."

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