EBRD lends Morocco’s ONEE €300 Mln to support its financial & climate resilience

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) provides Morocco’s Office National de l’Electricité et de l’Eau potable (ONEE) €300 million loan to strengthen the financial & climate resilience of the utility company and support its digitalization projects.

The Moroccan National Office of Electricity & Drinking Water is involved in generation, transmission and renewables. The North African Kingdom is strongly committed to the energy transition in order to achieve its objective of having 52 % of its installed capacity from renewables by 2030. In this context, ONEE and the country as a whole are taking important steps towards decarbonization, while maintaining the security and affordability of energy.

The EBRD loan is the first sustainability-linked loan (SLL) in the MENA and Africa region’s energy sector. It shows how energy utilities can link financing with support for the transition to a low-carbon economy. The proceeds will be used to improve the company’s financial resilience, helping to alleviate the impact of the energy crisis.

The SLL builds on ONEE’s increasing climate ambitions via two key performance indicators – namely, reducing the carbon intensity of electricity generated in Morocco and increasing renewable sources’ share of the country’s total electricity production.

As part of the loan, ONEE has committed to undertake retirement of some Carbone intensive thermal capacities in the medium term, building on Morocco’s enhanced climate ambition of transitioning to a net-zero economy by 2050 as announced at COP28.

The EBRD will be supporting ONEE’s efforts to prepare a decarbonization strategy, (improve its climate governance and expand the digitalization of the company’s core activities by establishing a digital roadmap strategy and implementing digital use cases.

As part of this decarbonization effort, ONEE is further strengthening its network and capacity planning to facilitate the renewables to be connected to the grid, as well as continuing to optimize electricity dispatch by taking into account the network’s carbon intensity.

Morocco is at the forefront of the climate action agenda, and the EBRD has been one of the leading financiers of green technologies in the country for more than a decade now, being particularly active in private-sector financing.”

Mark Bowman, EBRD’s Vice President for Policy and Partnerships, said this landmark sustainability-linked loan demonstrates that innovative finance can drive real impact.

Tarik Hamane, CEO of ONEE, said Morocco is recognized as having one of the most ambitious strategies in the region for promoting renewable energy and pioneering green technologies.

“We are proud that ONEE is playing a major role in the integration of renewables into the energy mix with a view to increasing renewables’ share to 52 per cent by 2030”, he added, noting that the EBRD has been a long-standing and trusted partner in supporting Morocco’s decarbonization and energy transition efforts.