Presentation short abstract

The study examines how the European Green Deal and EU-Morocco Green Partnership intersect with Morocco’s occupation of Western Sahara. The critical discourse analysis reveals how the renewable energy development risks legitimizing control over Indigenous peoples and reproducing green colonialism.

Presentation long abstract

The European Green Deal (EGD) is widely hailed as a transformative policy framework aimed at achieving climate neutrality by 2050, including pledges to 'leave no one behind’. Yet, its external dimension raises critical questions about justice and power in global energy transitions, especially in postcolonial contexts. This paper examines how the EGD intersects with Morocco’s renewable energy ambitions and the ongoing occupation of Western Sahara, investigating whether these dynamics reproduce colonial hierarchies under the guise of sustainability. While the EU promotes values of human rights and sustainable development, its Green Partnership with Morocco – an agreement signed in October 2022 to support Morocco's energy transition and climate cooperation – risks legitimizing Morocco’s control over Western Sahara and further exploitation of Sahrawi peoples. A significant part of Moroccan renewable energy projects, including large-scale wind and solar farms, are developed in Western Sahara, with plans to export electricity to European markets, undermining Sahrawi self-determination and raising ethical concerns about green colonialism and energy injustice. Using critical discourse analysis of EU, Moroccan, and Western Saharan media narratives, official documents, and other relevant sources, such as reports from watchdog organizations, this study investigates how actors frame renewable energy projects, whose voices are amplified or silenced, and what normative claims are mobilized. By situating the EU-Morocco Green Partnership within debates on green colonialism, the paper contributes to broader discussions on the justice dimensions of global energy transitions and calls for greater scrutiny of sustainability narratives in contested territories.