Introduction

Competing narratives on political ambition and environmental performance present an ambivalent image of the Kingdom of Morocco’s political trajectory and the role of environmental sustainability therein: Morocco’s equivocal environmental sustainability performance at the domestic level stands in contradiction to Morocco’s ostensible pioneer position in promoting renewable energies and the ‘green agenda’ at an international level. This occurs in the larger context of a reconfiguration of domestic and foreign politics under King Mohammed VI. This first chapter draws together these observations before the backdrop of authoritarian resilience and transnational power reconfiguration, and presents the question of ulterior motives within Morocco’s environmental politics. The chapter concludes with insights into the particularities of desk and field research on Morocco.