New ITMO Partnership Signed Between Norway and Morocco

A new bilateral agreement between Norway and Morocco will channel investment into renewable energy and joint emissions-reduction projects, with carbon markets at its core.

Moroccan and Norwegian officials engaging in a formal agreement with a solar power plant stretching across the Moroccan desert in the background, symbolizing clean energy cooperation. Ai generated picture.

Norway's Minister of Climate and Environment Andreas Bjelland Eriksen and Morocco's Minister of Energy Transition Leila Benali put their names to the deal, which sets the stage for cooperation under the international carbon market mechanisms established by the Paris Agreement.

At the heart of the agreement is Article 6.2, the bilateral cooperation track defined under the Paris Agreement. This mechanism allows participating countries to develop projects together, generate internationally transferable mitigation outcomes (ITMOs), and count those outcomes towards their respective national targets.

Morocco's Ministry of Energy Transition has confirmed that the partnership is built around this market-based pathway. Projects developed under the deal will follow the reporting and authorisation rules that countries must meet when transferring mitigation outcomes across borders.

The agreement opens the door to high-impact projects in Morocco's energy sector and seeks to attract sustainable investment flows into renewable capacity. One element being explored is a Generation-Based Incentive (GBI) scheme, which rewards clean energy producers based on the volume of electricity they generate. The mechanism is designed to accelerate renewable rollout and the emissions reductions tied to it.

For both governments, the cooperation reinforces the role of carbon markets as a financing route for the energy transition, with verified outcomes serving as the link between project investment and national targets.

The Norway–Morocco partnership reflects a broader shift in how countries approach Article 6. Bilateral agreements are emerging as a practical route to meet nationally determined contributions, with Switzerland, Singapore, Sweden, and Japan already active on the buyer side. For host countries such as Morocco, these deals can unlock financing for renewable energy and large-scale environmental projects, and offer project developers a clearer pathway to monetise verified outcomes on the international market.