In its piece “Morocco blazes solar power trail,” Financial Times delves into why the country, currently hosting the COP22 green summit, has emerged as a global leader in renewable energy. Starved for fossil fuel energy and with demand for electricity growing at 5-6% a year, the country has set itself the ambitious targets of producing 52% of its electricity from renewables by 2030.

What lessons can Egypt draw from this example? Morocco has taken a more comprehensive approach by expanding renewables development across a variety of key economic sectors while concurrently reducing subsidies on fossil fuels. But more pertinent to Egypt, which antagonized international lenders with phase one of its feed-in tariff program, the government established a funding model widely considered revolutionary. Masen, the government agency behind the country’s renewable projects, was able to use funds borrowed from multilateral agencies and banks and then lend the money on to the project company. It was the first model where the bidders on projects were meant to bid fully-financed going in.