Public procurement and energy efficiency in Morocco: Between normative ambition and operational effectiveness
Abstract
The Moroccan normative framework reflects a remarkable level of ambition. Energy efficiency is part of public procurement at every level: constitutional, strategic, legislative, regulatory. The 2023 Public Procurement Decree gives it a procedural base. Yet in the daily practice of public buyers, it disappears. This article follows that disappearance across the procurement process. Drawing on a sequential analysis of 46 tender files and a survey of 30 procurement actors, it shows where and how energy-efficiency requirements are neutralized. They are present when needs are defined. They fade at the admissibility stage. They are gone by contract award. The problem is not the law. The rules exist, and they are coherent. The gap lies at the meso level, the link, where legal ambition should turn into working tools. Public buyers, however, have no binding technical standards. Without these tools, they pick the bid closest to the reference price. Not out of negligence, but to protect themselves from oversight. The article proposes a reform on three levels. At the macro level, make regulatory requirements binding, step by step. At the meso level, build shared evaluation tools. At the micro level, give public buyers legal security. Without this alignment, energy efficiency will stay on paper.
Related
- Assessing processes and evidence for highest possible ambition in Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement
- From the ambition of a living lab to a small step in participatory science: Agro-environmental living lab appropriation through the lens of Actor Network Theory (ANT)
- Procurement and Waste in Hemodialysis: A Detailed Life Cycle Assessment to Reduce Environmental Impact.
- WarpFlow v1.0: A Single-Source CPU/GPU Shallow-Water Solver for Operational City-Scale Urban Flood Modeling
- The first filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD): hydrological and operational insights
BibTeX
@article{khnaba2026public,
title = {{Public procurement and energy efficiency in Morocco: Between normative ambition and operational effectiveness}},
author = {Mounya Khnaba},
journal = {RMd, Economics, Management \& Social Sciences},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.23882/emss26383},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05846699v1},
note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Public procurement and energy efficiency in Morocco: Between normative ambition and operational effectiveness
AU - Mounya Khnaba
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/01
JO - RMd, Economics, Management & Social Sciences
DO - 10.23882/emss26383
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05846699v1
AB - The Moroccan normative framework reflects a remarkable level of ambition. Energy efficiency is part of public procurement at every level: constitutional, strategic, legislative, regulatory. The 2023 Public Procurement Decree gives it a procedural base. Yet in the daily practice of public buyers, it disappears. This article follows that disappearance across the procurement process. Drawing on a sequential analysis of 46 tender files and a survey of 30 procurement actors, it shows where and how energy-efficiency requirements are neutralized. They are present when needs are defined. They fade at the admissibility stage. They are gone by contract award. The problem is not the law. The rules exist, and they are coherent. The gap lies at the meso level, the link, where legal ambition should turn into working tools. Public buyers, however, have no binding technical standards. Without these tools, they pick the bid closest to the reference price. Not out of negligence, but to protect themselves from oversight. The article proposes a reform on three levels. At the macro level, make regulatory requirements binding, step by step. At the meso level, build shared evaluation tools. At the micro level, give public buyers legal security. Without this alignment, energy efficiency will stay on paper.
SN - 2976-0364
SN - 2976-0364
ER -