Marrakech readies for COP22 climate change summit

The Bab Ighli village site in Marrakesh is readying itself for more than 20,000 participants from 196 countries expected to attend the upcoming COP22 conference on climate change from November 7 to 18.

The village is spread over 300,000 square metres and set up in Berber style, with 55 white tents divided into two main zones - blue for the UN and green for civil society organisations involved in environmental protection.

The cost reached 430 million dirhams and employed nearly 200 local construction companies.

The city is covered in thousands of flags to mark the event, and local taxis as well as the traditional caleches of the medina are outfitted with the event logo.

Numerous construction sites are still active and will remain so for the duration of the event, finishing the last touches in real time.

Many contests have been launched to involve above all students, invited to become “environmental reporters”.

Red electric buses criss-cross Marrakech, connecting the main hubs of the city, while in Casablanca ecological trams are already operative.

More than 300 rental bicycles situated in about a dozen stations are available for visitors as part of the Medina Bike project, one of hundreds of initiatives to make the Ochre City “greener”.

On November 12, thousands of Moroccan volunteers will plant more than a million trees in one day, along 3,000 hectares in 12 regions of Morocco.

The event, called “The Voice of the Forest”, involves oaks, cedars, Atlas cypresses, acacias and eucalyptus.