Morocco Grid Emission Factor: Official Values and Scope 2 Methods

Which grid emission factor should you use for electricity in Morocco?

A grid-average factor for Morocco, taken from an official document whose title, page, data year and unit you cite. As of 11 November 2026, two official documents give one: the annual statistics of Morocco’s Ministry of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development, and the first Biennial Transparency Report that Morocco submitted to the UNFCCC.

The grid emission factor converts the kilowatt-hours you buy into scope 2 emissions. At an industrial site it is often the first or second largest item in the corporate GHG inventory: a badly chosen factor skews the whole inventory, and an unsourced one makes it impossible to verify. This matters as much to a European buyer reading a Moroccan supplier’s questionnaire as to the supplier itself.

The calculation is simple: purchased electricity (kWh, from your invoices) × emission factor (gCO2/kWh or kgCO2e/kWh) = scope 2 emissions. As an illustration only, 1,000,000 kWh bought in 2024, multiplied by the ministry’s provisional 2024 value (657.3 gCO2/kWh), gives 657.3 tonnes of CO2. Choosing the value takes three decisions: which source, which year, which scope 2 method.

This guide sets out the official values read on 11 November 2026, what they measure and how to document them. It complements our ISO 14064-1 requirements guide, which covers the inventory as a whole.

Which official values exist, and what do they measure?

There are two series: a ministry indicator in grams of CO2 per kWh generated, published every year, and two factors in kgCO2e/kWh used in the first Biennial Transparency Report for 2022. They measure different things and do not match.

The ministry’s key figures

The ministry publishes its ‘Chiffres clés annuels du secteur de l’Énergie’ every year, in French. The 2025 edition, available on its reports page, gives a series from 2007 to 2024 on page 24. Note 11 to the table defines the indicator: CO2 emissions from burning fuels to generate electricity, divided by total electricity generation from all sources. Note 10 says the calculation uses default CO2 emission factors by type of energy and the conversion factors of the national energy balance.

The document states three limits itself. Values from 2018 to 2024 are flagged as provisional data. The calculation ‘remains to be refined’, according to the note under the table, with country-specific calorific values and factors. And the indicator covers CO2 only: no methane, no nitrous oxide. The table gives its source as a calculation by DSPOC, a directorate of the ministry.

The first Biennial Transparency Report

On 30 December 2024 Morocco submitted a combined report to the UNFCCC: its fifth National Communication on climate change and first Biennial Transparency Report (in French). Annex 4 holds the assessment sheets for the emission reductions of the measures in Morocco’s nationally determined contribution (NDC) in 2022. Two factors appear:

• 0.655 kgCO2e/kWh (0.640 CO2, 0.0072 CH4 and 0.00786 N2O, in kg CO2e), called the ‘Moroccan electricity mix emission factor’, for actions in the power-generation sector (wind and solar plans, hydro and combined-cycle plants). Sources cited: ONEE (the national electricity and water utility), MASEN (the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy) and ‘Base carbone Maroc’.
• 0.721 kgCO2e/kWh (0.7044 CO2, 0.00793 CH4 and 0.00865 N2O), called the ‘electricity mix emission factor (final energy)’, for energy efficiency in industry and other actions that cut electricity consumption; the Rabat tramway extension sheet calls it the ‘emission factor of electricity in Morocco in 2022’. Sources cited: ONEE, the ministry and ‘Base carbone Maroc’.

These sheets state the global warming potentials they use for methane (25) and nitrous oxide (298). The report does not explain how either factor was calculated, nor why they differ.

The national inventory report

The National Inventory Document of December 2024, submitted the same day, gives no per-kWh factor. It gives context: electricity and heat production (category 1.A.1.a) emitted 32,217.3 gigagrams of CO2 in 2022 and is the first key category of the inventory; coal accounted for 68.0% of electricity generation in 2022. Activity data comes from ONEE’s electricity branch, and emission factors are the IPCC 2006 defaults, except for the CO2 of coal and petroleum coke, calculated with the conversion factors of the national energy balance.

Why do the 2022 values not match?

For 2022 the ministry publishes 782.5 gCO2/kWh (CO2 only, provisional), while the Biennial Transparency Report uses 0.640 or 0.7044 kg CO2 per kWh depending on the sheet. Neither document explains the gap. It is manageable if you do three things: pick one source, write it down, keep it.

Parties to the Paris Agreement must submit their second Biennial Transparency Report by 31 December 2026; as of 11 November 2026 the UNFCCC page does not yet list one for Morocco. Re-read it when it is published.

Location-based or market-based: which factor for which scope 2 method?

The location-based method uses an average factor for the grid you consume from; the market-based method uses the factors in your electricity contracts and certificates. The official values above serve the first; the second depends on what you bought.

The rules come from the GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance (2015), which complements the Corporate Standard. It is under revision: public consultation from 20 October 2025 to 31 January 2026, results published on 29 July 2026, and the revised text folded into the consolidated GHG Protocol–ISO draft due for consultation in Q2 2027, with publication estimated for Q4 2028. No new edition has been published: the 2015 edition applies.

What the Scope 2 Guidance requires

• Two results, in some cases. A company with operations in markets that offer contractual instruments (certificates, electricity contracts, supplier-specific factors) reports scope 2 both ways, each labelled. Without such instruments, there is one location-based result.
• A location-based hierarchy (Table 6.2): first a regional or subnational factor that reflects physical imports and exports, then a national production factor, which does not. The guidance gives IEA national electricity factors and the UK’s Defra annual grid-average factor as examples.
• A market-based hierarchy (Table 6.3): energy attribute certificates, electricity contracts (including power purchase agreements), supplier emission rates, then the residual mix. Each instrument must meet the quality criteria in Table 7.1.
• Generation-only factors. The data should convey direct combustion emissions, in tonnes per MWh or kWh. Grid losses and upstream fuel emissions go in scope 3, category 3: see the 15 scope 3 categories explained.
• Transparency on gases. The guidance recommends disclosing when a location-based factor does not cover CH4 and N2O, which is the case for the ministry’s indicator.

What this means in Morocco

The ministry’s indicator fits the ‘national production emission factor’ type in Table 6.2: an average of all electricity generated in the country, with no adjustment for imports or exports. The Biennial Transparency Report factors are of the same kind, expressed in CO2e.

For market-based, look at your contracts:

• Electricity bought from a private renewable producer under Morocco’s amended Law 13-09: the contract, and the certificate of origin created by Decree No. 2-24-761, can support a contractual factor if they meet the quality criteria.
• Solar power generated and used on site under Law 82-21: it is not purchased and falls outside scope 2. Our article on Law 82-21 and electricity self-generation covers the certificate of origin.
• No specific contract: the guidance points to the residual mix, the emissions of unclaimed electricity. We found no residual-mix factor published by an official Moroccan source. In that case the guidance requires you to say so and to use location-based data for the sites concerned, so the market-based result equals the location-based one.

ISO 14064-1:2018, under revision (draft ISO/WD 14064-1.2 at stage 20.60 on iso.org as of 11 November 2026), puts these emissions in its category 2, ‘indirect GHG emissions from imported energy’. The same factor serves both presentations.

Why is the CBAM factor not the one for your corporate inventory?

Because the CBAM default value was set for one purpose: calculating the indirect embedded emissions of goods imported into the EU when the importer has no actual value. It does not replace the factor in your corporate inventory, and its licence limits reuse.

Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2621 of 16 December 2025, applicable since 1 January 2026, sets the CBAM default values. Its Article 1 refers to four annexes, two of which concern electricity:

According to recital 7, the indirect-emissions value is the simple average of the country-of-origin grid emission factor over the most recent five-year period for which reliable data is available. The regulation is to be revised in 2027 at the latest. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1740 replaced its Annexes I and IV, not Annexes II and III.

We do not reproduce those values here. Annexes II and III state that they are based on International Energy Agency (IEA) data under a non-commercial Creative Commons licence, intended for determining the embedded emissions of CBAM goods; commercial use requires an IEA licence. Three points to keep in mind:

• For your corporate inventory, use an official Moroccan value or a source whose licence allows your use.
• For EU customers subject to CBAM, the default value is what they will declare if you do not give them actual data; see the CBAM definitive period for exporters and our page on CBAM for exporters.
• Do not mix the two in one report without labelling them: a customer comparing your scope 2 with your CBAM data needs to see why the factors differ.

Why not use a figure from the press or a foreign database?

Because a verifier will ask where the factor comes from, and a press article or a shared spreadsheet cannot answer. The values circulating in the Moroccan press do not cite an official document: do not use them, even when they look like an official value.

Foreign databases raise other questions. A French database such as ADEME’s Base Empreinte, or the UK conversion factors, are built for their own country; any values they carry for other countries come from third-party sources whose year and licence you need to check. IEA national factors, given as an example in the Scope 2 Guidance, are distributed under licence.

A European customer may still impose a source, so that data from all its suppliers is comparable. In that case use it for that request, cite it, and keep the official Moroccan factor in your own inventory. Our page on CSRD, VSME and ESG questionnaires covers how to answer such requests consistently.

How should you document the factor in your inventory?

In an emission factor register, one line per factor: exact source, year, unit, gases, licence, date accessed and reason for the choice. It is the first thing a verifier reads.

What the electricity line of the register should contain

1. Activity data: kWh bought per site and per month, from invoices, and the share covered by a contract or certificate.
2. The location-based factor: value, unit (gCO2/kWh or kgCO2e/kWh), document title, page, data year, ‘provisional’ flag where shown, date accessed.
3. Gases covered: CO2 only, or CO2, CH4 and N2O, with the global warming potentials used.
4. The market-based factor: instrument, period, quantity, or a statement that no instrument applies and no official residual mix was found.
5. The update rule: which edition you will use next year, and what you will do if a provisional value is revised.

When should you recalculate?

In practice, the normal year-to-year change in the factor is not treated as a recalculation: each year uses its own year’s factor, and a falling factor explains part of a fall in your location-based scope 2. Say so in the report, so you do not present as your own action what comes from the grid.

The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard does, however, list changes in calculation method and improvements in emission factors among the triggers for recalculating the base year, when the effect is significant against the threshold you set. Switching from the ministry indicator to the Biennial Transparency Report factor, for example, goes through the recalculation policy described on our page on GHG inventories to ISO 14064.

Before you send your figures

• The electricity factor cites an official document, its page, the data year and the unit.
  
• The provisional status of a ministry value is shown.
  
• The gases covered by the factor are stated; missing CH4 and N2O are flagged where relevant.
  
• Scope 2 is reported location-based, and market-based when you hold contracts or certificates.
  
• The absence of an official residual mix is recorded if you found none.
  
• Electricity generated and used on site is outside scope 2.
  
• Grid losses are in scope 3, category 3, not scope 2.
  
• No press figures, no unsourced spreadsheet.
  
• The CBAM default value is not used as the inventory factor.
  
• The same source is kept from year to year, or a change follows the recalculation policy.
  

If your inventory is to be verified, our ISO 14064-3 verification guide explains what the verifier will check in this register.