Brussels (Belgium), 15 November 2026 (SPS) – The Western Sahara Resource Watch (WSRW) has revealed that Morocco plans to establish four of six major green hydrogen projects in the occupied territories of Western Sahara, in violation of international law and the Sahrawi people's permanent sovereignty over their natural resources.
According to WSRW, Morocco's 2027 draft budget, published in late October, confirms preliminary land reservation agreements and initial engineering studies for six industrial projects worth a total of US$34 billion, with an estimated annual production capacity of one million tonnes of green hydrogen.
Three of the projects are planned in occupied Dakhla and one in occupied El Aaiún, while the remaining two are located in Guelmim-Oued Noun
The five investors involved include the ORNX consortium (Aortus, Acciona and Nordex), TAQA-Moeve, ACWA Power, a Chinese consortium comprising United Energy Group and China Three Gorges, and Morocco's Nareva.
WSRW representative Sarah Eyckmans stressed that companies accepting land allocated by an occupying power risk direct complicity in the occupation, emphasizing that renewable energy projects are not exempt from international law and cannot proceed without the consent of the Sahrawi people.
WSRW maintains that exploiting Western Sahara's natural resources without the free, prior and informed consent of the Sahrawi people, represented by the Polisario Front, violates international law and the people's inalienable right to self-determination and permanent sovereignty over their resources.
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