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RABAT — Morocco's economy is projected to grow by 3.3 per cent in 2023, a government agency said on Thursday in a scaled down forecast for the country battling historic drought.

Agriculture is a key sector in the kingdom's economy, one of Africa's most dynamic.

"Assuming recovery of agricultural activities, the national economy should show a 3.3 per cent increase in 2023," said Ayache Khellaf, secretary general of the government's High Commission for Planning (HCP).

The HCP in July had projected a 3.7 per cent increase in Gross Domestic Product this year after just 1.3 per cent in 2022. 

The coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine sent inflation spiralling to 8 per cent last year with price hikes on fuel and food.

Morocco had returned "to 2014 levels of poverty and vulnerability" last year, the HCP said previously.

In early December protesters turned out in Rabat to denounce the government and high cost of living but the country's history making semi-final run at the football World Cup gave citizens some temporary relief from economic pain.

The 2023 annual state budget, presented in October by the government of liberal Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch, factored in a 4 per cent GDP growth.

"Uncertainties linked primarily to the progress of the war in Ukraine, interest rates and epidemic and climatic risks" will decide how much the economy actually grows in 2023, Khellaf said at a press conference in Rabat.

The HCP noted in its economic forecast a "probable" risk of a return to drought, despite "relatively abundant rainfall" in December and said key drivers of growth are "in decline".

Last year, the North African country saw its worst drought in four decades.

"The shocks suffered over the past three years by the Moroccan economy, despite its relative resilience, have caused lasting damage," Khellaf said.

Morocco is also hoping to convert its raised profile from the World Cup into economic gains, especially for tourism. The sector is one of the country's top employers.

ABU DHABI — The president of this year's COP28 climate talks, who heads a major oil company, on Saturday urged a focus on lower emissions to reduce global warming, warning that energy needs were set to accelerate.

Sultan Al Jaber, the United Arab Emirates' special envoy for climate change and CEO of oil giant ADNOC, said less-polluting fossil fuels would remain part of the energy mix, along with renewables and other solutions.

"As long as the world still uses hydrocarbons, we must ensure they are the least carbon intensive possible," Al Jaber told the Global Energy Forum in Abu Dhabi, two days after his unveiling as COP president.

"We're working with the energy industry on accelerating de-carbonisation, reducing methane and expanding hydrogen. 

"Let's keep our focus on holding back emissions, not progress."

Al Jaber's nomination on Thursday prompted protests from climate activists concerned that a senior figure from the oil industry has little incentive to reduce the use of hydrocarbons.

The Gulf monarchy argues that oil remains indispensable to the global economy and is pushing the merits of carbon capture — removing carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, as fuel is burned or from the air.

Al Jaber said the UAE would organise this year's United Nations climate summit with "humility, a clear sense of responsibility and a great sense of urgency".

He said the world's population, currently eight billion, was on course to reach 9.7 billion by 2050 and would need "50 per cent more energy than what is available today".

'Living in a dream' 

"We are way off track. The world is playing catch up when it comes to the key Paris goal of holding global temperatures down to 1.5 degrees [Celsius]," he said.

"And the harsh reality is that in order to achieve this goal, global emissions must fall 43 per cent by 2030."

COP27, held in Egypt in November, concluded with the adoption of a hotly contested text on aid to poor countries affected by climate change, but failed to set new ambitions for lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

The UAE, a leading crude producer and one of the world's biggest polluters per capita, will host the next edition in Dubai in November and December. It had the largest contingent of oil and gas lobbyists at last year's talks.

At the Global Energy Forum, whose audience included US climate envoy John Kerry, Qatar's Energy Minister Saad Sherida Al Kaabi accused critics of "demonising" oil and gas companies.

"If I can just be a little bit blunt... the community that was driving the green [agenda] was living in a dream that they realise they can't achieve," said Kaabi, who is also the chief executive of state gas firm QatarEnergy.

"It's very important that we achieve these goals but we need to be realistic about what we can achieve," he added. "We can't be driven by just the agendas of people wanting to be elected."

Products as varied as coolers and clothing rely on hydrocarbons, Kaabi said. "I know we need to do a lot of work there but let's not forget the reality of what we need."

DUBAI — The head of the United Arab Emirates' national oil company was named on Thursday as president of this year's COP28 climate talks, prompting fierce criticism from environmental activists.

Sultan Al Jaber, chief executive of the UAE's Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), will be the first CEO to take the role at the UN summit, said a statement carried by the official WAM news agency.

"I sincerely believe that climate action today is an immense economic opportunity for investment in sustainable growth," he was quoted as saying, promising a "pragmatic" approach.

Jaber, the UAE's minister of industry, is also the Gulf state's special envoy for climate change and has taken part in more than 10 COP meetings.

He is CEO of Masdar, the UAE's renewable energy company, and has "played a key role in shaping the country's clean energy path", the statement said.

But climate activists were quick to criticise his appointment. Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at Climate Action Network International, said it "poses an outrageous conflict of interest".

Teresa Anderson, global lead on climate justice at ActionAid, an NGO, said: "This appointment goes beyond putting the fox in charge of the henhouse."

And Rachel Kyte, dean of the Fletcher School of international affairs at Tufts University in the US, warned: "The incoming COP president has a dilemma.

"The UAE is competing to be the most efficient and lowest-cost source of fossil fuels as global production must diminish through the energy transition," she said.

"It will be challenging as COP president to unite countries around more aggressive action while at the same time suggesting that other producers stop producing because UAE has you covered.

"We don't have the planetary space for mixed messages," she added.

Too hot for humans 

COP27, held in Egypt in November, concluded with the adoption of a hotly contested text on aid to poor countries affected by climate change, but failed to set new ambitions for lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

The UAE, one of the world's biggest crude producers, will host the next edition in Dubai in November and December. It had the largest contingent of oil and gas lobbyists at last year's talks.

The Gulf monarchy argues that oil remains indispensable to the global economy and is pushing the merits of carbon capture — removing carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, as fuel is burned or from the air.

"Limiting global warming to 1.5ºC will require significant reductions in emissions, a pragmatic, practical and realistic approach to the energy transition and more help for emerging economies," the UAE's statement said, referring to the goal set at previous COP summits.

The UAE is one of the countries at the sharp end of climate change as it lies in one of the world's hottest regions, with summer temperatures nudging 50ºC.

According to a study published in 2021, parts of the Gulf could become too hot for human habitation by the end of this century.

The UAE has announced ambitious environmental initiatives, including plans for 20 gigawatts of installed solar capacity by 2030 and a fully operational nuclear power station by 2024.

But the Gulf state also forecasts that the oil and gas industry would need to invest more than $600 billion every year until 2030 to keep up with expected demand.

Former UN climate chief Yvo de Boer offered support for the UAE and Jaber, saying his work in "green growth strategy" and renewable energy give him the "understanding, experience and responsibility" to make COP28 a success.

With its high use of air-conditioning and desalinated water, and ubiquitous SUVs plying 10-lane highways, the UAE was the world's fourth biggest polluter per capita in 2019, according to the World Bank.

It is aiming to develop enough renewable energy to cover half of its needs by 2050, when it is targeting domestic carbon neutrality — which excludes emissions from its exported oil.

PARIS — The French government on Wednesday played down the prospect of mass strikes and protests over pension reform which are expected to start next week.

All of France's main unions have called the first stoppages and rallies next Thursday to protest against the government's plan to raise the retirement age to 64 from its current level of 62, a change that is widely unpopular among the public.

Many observers expect a bitter battle over the next month that could lead to disruption to transport and public services.

"We're not focusing on the possibility of massive protests or the impact of these protests," spokesman Olivier Veran told reporters at a briefing.

"We've finished the phase of consultations and we are entering into the phase of explaining and informing."

Asked whether he was "scared" about the looming battle earlier in the day, he replied: "It doesn't scare me." 

"In the modern history of our country, every time that people have needed to work a bit longer, every time we've needed to reform the pension system... there have been protests," he told the Franceinfo radio station.

President Emmanuel Macron, whose credibility is on the line with a reform he has championed since coming to power in 2017, called on his ministers on Wednesday to help sell the "essential and vital" change to a highly sceptical electorate.

He urged ministers to stress the "social progress" in the changes, such as a higher minimum pension of 1,200 euros ($1,287) a month and allowances for people in ill health or physically demanding jobs.

Veran said that "those that started work early will be able to retire at 58" and four out of 10 workers would not need to reach the new limit of 64 for a pension. 

'Sadistic'

Polls suggested that around two thirds of French people are currently against the changes and a majority support the call for protests.

Draft legislation is expected to be presented in the hung national parliament in early February, with Macron's minority MPs banking on support from the rightwing Republicans opposition group to pass it.

The far-right National Rally Party of Marine Le Pen has announced its intention to be "the leader of opposition to the reform" — a role also coveted by the hard-left France Unbowed Party.

Le Pen called the reform "unfair and very brutal" on Wednesday, saying she thought Macron was being pressured by the European Union or was "sadistic" given the cost-of-living crisis caused by high inflation.

"I told the prime minister this, there's a sadistic side, like the child that pulls the wings off a fly," Le Pen told parliamentary journalists. 

"At a time when French people are facing serious difficulties... with their household budgets collapsing, you're carrying out a reform of the pension system with extreme haste," she added.

PARIS — The French government is set to announce its proposals for overhauling the pension system on Tuesday, in a potentially explosive reform fraught with danger for President Emmanuel Macron.

With his oft-repeated belief that the French "need to work more", Macron has doggedly insisted since his rise to power in 2017 that the pension system must be streamlined.

But having called off his first attempt in 2020 in the face of protests and the COVID-19 pandemic, the 45-year-old centrist put the issue at the heart of his successful campaign for a second term in April last year. 

As well as simplifying the system and removing privileges enjoyed by workers in some sectors of the economy, the reform will aim to raise the retirement age from its current level of 62 — most likely to 64.

"On the whole, the idea of the reform is not supported by the public, even though some can understand that if we live for longer then we might need to work for longer," Bruno Cautres, a political expert at Sciences Po university in Paris, told AFP. 

All of France's trade unions and most of the country's opposition political parties are preparing for battle, seeing the struggle as a way of protecting the country's social system and undermining Macron's position.

The former investment banker lost his parliamentary majority in legislative elections in June in a major setback.

He has made pension reform one of the main planks of his plans for domestic reform during his second term.

"If Emmanuel Macron wants to make it the mother of reforms... for us it will be the mother of battles," warned the head of the hard-left FO union, Frederic Souillot, over the weekend.

Street protests and strikes appear inevitable, with Macron's last attempt resulting in the longest public transport stoppage in Paris in three decades.

Yellow Vests II? 

Of greater concern to the government is the risk of spontaneous protests of the sort seen in 2018 when people wearing fluorescent yellow safety jackets began blocking roads, sparking what became known as the "Yellow Vest" revolt.

The often violent display of defiance struck fear into the heart of government, leading Macron to promise a gentler, less authoritarian style of governing.

"I don't see another 'Yellow Vest' crisis happening," Cautres told AFP, even though he said the national mood was one of "pessimism, fatalism and anger" and a sense that "we're permanently in crisis".

Some in government are banking on the country acquiescing to a change that is widely disliked but viewed as inevitable, particularly given that most of France's neighbours have hiked the retirement age to 65 or beyond.

"There's a form of fatalism," an aide to Macron told AFP recently on condition of anonymity. "We're going to go through with it and people know it."

The government has also watered down some of its proposals, with the retirement age likely to be 64 instead of the 65 proposed by Macron.

There will also be a proposed rise in the minimum pension to 1,200 euros ($1,280) a month and greater provision for people who have not worked continuously, such as parents who took career breaks to care for children.

'President of the rich' 

Critics see the changes as retrograde and unnecessary, even though official forecasts show the system in deep deficit in the coming decades because of the gradually ageing population.

"In 2023, will Emmanuel Macron be out of step with the era and shine as the president of the rich?" leftwing French economist and author Thomas Piketty asked in Le Monde newspaper on Sunday.

He said the reform might save the state up to 20 billion euros a year, but "the problem is that these 20 billion will weigh down entirely on the poorest" by extending their working lives.

As well as contending with strikes and protests, Macron's government will also need to cut a path through the stormy parliament where the ruling party and its allies are in a minority.

Support for the legislation from the rightwing Republicans party is expected to be necessary.

Without it, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne would have to use a constitutional power known as article 49.3 which enables her to ram through legislation without a vote.

But such a move would almost certainly lead to a confidence vote, which, if all the opposition parties united, could bring down the government. 

Borne will unveil the outlines of the proposed law at 5:30 pm (1630 GMT) and will speak on French TV later in the evening.