As part of its sustainable development strategy, Morocco is committed to addressing environmental, climatic and energy challenges. As such, the public authorities make the efficiency of energy consumption a guiding principle of their action

Indeed, Morocco has developed a proactive national energy strategy in order to achieve strong and sustainable economic growth and to initiate integrated human development, notably in the areas of housing, services, industry and transport. The objective is to control energy demand in order to achieve energy savings of 12% by 2020 and 15% by 2030.

The achievement of these objectives implies a strong involvement of all sectors; If energy approaches could appear a few years ago as a matter of the environmental sphere alone, the challenge now concerns all the components of society.

Urban planning is at the heart of these concerns. At the global level, cities consume more than two-thirds of the world's energy and produce more than 70% of global CO2 emissions from energy use.

In Morocco, the strong urbanization trend, with urbanization rates more than doubling in the last fifty years to reach 59.2%, combined with continuous urban sprawl, has undoubtedly led to an increase in energy consumption.

As a result, any energy efficiency strategy depends to a large extent on the consideration of this issue in the planning and management of urban areas as part of a comprehensive and integrated approach to the challenges of sustainable urban planning; Policies in planning and urban development can contribute to the intelligent organization of the city, and to movements within it that consume less energy.

In this respect, urban planning appears as an adequate framework for territorializing this strategy; Urban planning documents play an essential role in the organization of urban development in configurations allowing for increased energy efficiency. To this end, they are called upon to act as levers for the development of territorial organization, urban forms and modes of construction and displacement in order to integrate energy efficiency issues.

Awareness of these issues is also highlighted during the design and implementation of major urban development projects, upgrading and in the development of certain plans Mobility and transport.

It is in this sense that law 47-09 on energy efficiency subjects certain urban development projects and building programs to energy impact studies. It also provides, in addition to the planning legislation, any development plan defines the areas in which projects will be carried out which, depending on their size or nature, require the carrying out of an energy impact assessment.

However, the optimal implementation of these provisions presupposes, first of all, that they should be part of a global vision based on a sharing of knowledge and a better articulation between the urban development policy and that of energy efficiency, To create common frameworks of reference and action. It also requires work, in symbiosis, between all the territorial actors to meet the energy challenge, as this can only be achieved through a partnership approach at all scales.

Objectives

In order to contribute to the debate on this issue of strategic importance, and in the aftermath of Cop-21 (France-2015) and one year of COP 22 (Morocco-2016) Ministry of Urbanism and Territory Planning and the Federation of Urban Agencies in Morocco - MAJAL - organize this meeting with the aim of:

• Providing insights into the tools and mechanisms between urban planning and energy efficiency;
• Taking a look at some of the national and international experiences in this area;
• Initiating a debate on the mechanisms to be implemented in order to strengthen the consideration of the Energy issue in urban planning and management.