HIBAPRESS
The city of Rabat hosted, on Thursday, May 14, 2026, a scientific seminar on the topic "Climate Change and Internal Migration in Morocco: Youth at the Heart of Transformations," organized by the Moroccan Association Dynamics Atlas ATLAS Dynamics, as part of its efforts to contribute to achieving sustainable development goals and enhance public debate on climate, migration, and territorial development issues.
The seminar witnessed wide participation from parliamentarians, local elected officials, academics, experts, and representatives from think tanks and civil society, in addition to journalists and actors interested in climate and migration issues. The meeting was characterized by interactive discussions and diverse interventions that shed light on the challenges posed by climate change on Moroccan society, especially among young people. The organizers confirmed that this initiative falls within a dynamic that aims to enhance citizen participation, with youth and women at the heart of social and environmental transformations, as well as establishing dialogue and interaction between cultures as a mechanism for understanding complex transformations and building collective and sustainable solutions. In this context, participants recalled data from the World Bank, indicating that Morocco is one of the countries most vulnerable to the repercussions of climate change, especially due to successive droughts and water scarcity, which may lead, in the absence of effective adaptation policies, to about 1.9 million cases of internal migration by the year 2050, most of which will be from rural areas to cities. The interventions addressed a number of topics related to territorial fragility, internal migration resulting from climate change, and its impact on youth and public policies, where academic and institutional figures participated in the seminar, including Nezha Bouchareb, Yasmine Boutayeb, Mohamed Boudou, Mohamed Harakat, in addition to Jamal Karimi Benchaqroun. The seminar was also an opportunity to emphasize the need to develop integrated public policies that promote spatial justice and territorial resilience, with special attention to youth, as they are the most affected by climate change, and at the same time, the most capable of innovation and proposing solutions. At the end of the meeting, Ibtissam Ezzaoui reviewed the most prominent recommendations stemming from the discussion, stressing that climate change has become a structural factor in reshaping migration patterns and territorial balances in Morocco, which requires adopting multi-level strategic governance, and enhancing dialogue and cooperation between various actors to address the escalating environmental and social challenges.
