Energy security is considered as an important driving force for sustaining socio-economic growth of any nation. The Mediterranean countries (particularly MedRing countries) are witnessing a steady economic growth backed with a relative political stability and improvement of living standards. Moreover, an enormous potential in terms of fossil and renewable energies is still not fully explored in this region. Hence, the establishment of an integrated regional approach for managing the energy sector will most likely enhance energy security and regional cooperation between MedRing countries following the ultimate goal of answering the growing energy demand in the upcoming decades. The aim of this study is to (1) evaluate the levels of energy security in those countries using four selected indicators and (2) highlight their orientations towards the deployment of renewable energy as an important pillar for ensuring the security of the energy systems in these countries. The results showed that the MedRing countries are highly dependent on imported fossil fuels (except for exporting countries such as Algeria, Libya, and Egypt), and thus, the major share of their CO2 emissions are resulting from the energy sector. On the other hand, renewable and nuclear energies seem to be the ideal alternatives for enhancing energy security and creating mutual benefits for the two shores of the Mediterranean basin.

The achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for any nation has become more of an urgent priority in the global agenda than at any time before, especially under the light of recent disrupting events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the alarming food–water–energy trilemma, and the geopolitical upheavals impacting the supply chain of vital commodities. Assessing the sustainable progress of a country over time can help policy makers establish and develop robust strategies by identifying their strengths and weaknesses, allocating adequate resources, and understanding how far the country is from achieving the SDGs. No prior research has evaluated the SDGs performance composite index in Morocco. Hence, this study evaluates the national level of SDG progress by analyzing 13 out of 17 SDGs, including 46 available economic, social, and environmental indicators from 2001 to 2018, to provide factual data that can be used as a decision-making basis. The selection of indicators is established based on the framework adopted by the UN General Assembly. A composite index was created and quantified using the min–max normalization technique, the geometric product aggregation, and the overall scores of Morocco’s SDG performance and the different dimensions were calculated. The results show that economic performance was the worst among the other dimensions. Morocco is progressing to achieve the environmental and social targets, but more effort is required to absorb the needs linked with population growth and improvement of living standards. The developed framework could be of great interest for scientists and researchers to assess the national SDG progress of other countries.

Morocco is one of the major importers of conventional fuels in the MENA region. In fact, ensuring energy security in the western kingdom is placing a heavy burden on economic balances, while generating many environmental impacts and social discrepancies. The local government has been striving to reduce its GHG emissions coming mainly from activities related to the field of energy harvesting. The current research work aims to evaluate technical, economic, social, and environmental impacts of the ongoing transition toward renewable energy (RE) deployment in Morocco. We used the system dynamics approach in order to study different interactions of the components of the Moroccan electricity sector and their behaviors on this complex system under various scenarios. The results showed that 35 MtCO 2 of avoided emissions can be ensured up to 2030 if renewable installed capacity reaches 15.72 GW by the same year. On the other hand, demand is estimated to be reduced by almost 30 TWh if robust measures were taken turning the country into an electricity exporter of up to 8.67 TWh by 2030. Finally, while research and development activities are expected to decrease RE plants construction costs by almost 700 million USD, nearly 448.986 renewable jobs can be created by 2030.

Energy security is a multi-dimensional concept that is gaining a growing interest worldwide for studying the sustainability of a given energy sector. The level of energy security has been always quantified and evaluated by focusing on economic and technical dimensions, and modest importance was attributed to social and environmental aspects. Moreover, countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region were always underreported in the literature pertaining to energy security issues. This study strives to evaluate energy security in this region through the establishment of an original Environmental Energy Security Index (EESI) in order to cover different dimensions of security of energy supply within these counties. A total of nine sub-indicators were selected based on the current policies and orientations in the region. These indicators were normalized, weighted, and aggregated for each country of the MENA region between 2008 and 2017. According to the assessment objectives, results showed that on average Yemen holds the highest EESI score of 5.319 followed by Morocco 4.304 and Algeria 4.087. On the other hands, Bahrain is ranked last 1.610 preceded by UAE 2.249 and Qatar 2.461. Some key proposals were suggested including investment in local resources, diversification of the energy mix, reduction of energy imports, and use of energy-efficient technologies.

Producing electricity at an affordable price while taking into account environmental concerns has become a major challenge in Morocco. Moreover, the technical and financial issues related to renewable electricity plants are still hindering their efficient integration in the country. In fact, the energy sector (both electricity and heat) accounted for more than half of all Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emissions in the kingdom due to the major reliance on fossil fuels for answering the growing local demand. The key strategies to alleviate this critical situation include the integration of more renewable energies in the total energy mix and the enhancement of energy efficiency measures in different sectors. This paper strives to (1) evaluate the potential of carbon dioxide mitigation in Moroccan electricity sector following the actual and projected strategies and (2) highlight the policy schemes to be taken in order to achieve the ambitious carbon dioxide mitigation targets in the mid-term. A system dynamics model was built in order to simulate different scenarios of carbon dioxide mitigation policies up to 2030. The results shows that the achievement of renewable energies projects by 2030 could save 228.143 MtCO2 between 2020 and 2030 and an additional 18.127 MtCO2 could be avoided in the same period by enhancing energy efficiency measures.