Architecting climate governance, energy security frameworks, and strategic foresight across the Euro-Mediterranean region.
Climate Diplomacy
UfM Framework
Engagement Since 2015
Hatim Aznague serves as Project Analyst at the Energy and Climate Action Division of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM)—an intergovernmental institution that convenes EU Member States alongside sixteen nations from the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean shores to advance dialogue, cooperation, and shared governance frameworks. Within this institutional architecture, he occupies a position at the nexus of climate policy formulation, energy security strategy, and regional development coordination—contributing to the design and implementation of cross-border initiatives that address the Mediterranean’s unique vulnerabilities to climate disruption.
Institutional Authority & Multilateral Reach
Prior to and concurrent with his tenure at the UfM, Aznague has built a substantive record as an international consultant working with global institutions, including the United Nations and its affiliated agencies. In this capacity, he has contributed directly to climate negotiations and multilateral policy processes, engaging with the procedural and substantive dimensions of the UNFCCC architecture. His consultancy work has spanned advisory roles in which scientific evidence, economic analysis, and diplomatic strategy converge—providing technical input into negotiation texts, supporting delegations in preparatory sessions, and facilitating the translation of complex atmospheric and energy data into language that can survive the rigours of intergovernmental plenary debate.
His placement within the UfM positions him as a practitioner operating inside one of the most complex multilateral systems in the Euro-Mediterranean space, where intergovernmental consensus must be forged across divergent economic realities, energy dependencies, and political traditions. Beyond the UfM, Aznague serves as a European Climate Pact Ambassador appointed by the Directorate-General for Climate Action (DG CLIMA) of the European Commission, designing sustainable solutions that connect community-level actions with multilateral frameworks. He participates in high-level security dialogues, including the IISS Manama Dialogue, where he engaged senior defence and foreign policy officials on modernising legacy energy-security frameworks to build anticipatory cooperation.
Policy Translation — A Disciplined Framework
Aznague’s professional philosophy is anchored in three interconnected expertise domains: inclusive climate governance, fair financing mechanisms, and the meaningful engagement of emerging professionals in global decision-making. These are not siloed competencies but rather an integrated approach to what he terms “Policy Translation”—the disciplined practice of converting scientific evidence into actionable regulatory language that can be adopted, implemented, and enforced at the national level.
“The distance between scientific consensus and enforceable legislation is not merely a bureaucratic inconvenience—it is the defining governance failure of the climate era.”
Inclusive governance, in his framework, means ensuring that legislative architecture reflects the realities of communities on the frontlines of climate impacts, not merely the priorities of capitals and corporate boardrooms. Fair financing requires a restructuring of the global climate finance architecture to ensure that adaptation funds reach the implementing entities that need them, subject to transparent fiduciary standards and equitable allocation criteria. Intergenerational policy engagement, critically, is not performative; it demands the creation of institutional pathways through which emerging professionals gain substantive roles in policy design—not just seats in the audience.
Domains of Expertise
The Mediterranean as a Governance Laboratory
Within the UfM, Aznague contributes to the development of regional strategies on clean energy transition, climate change adaptation, and security-sensitive approaches to sustainability. His research and field experience across the Mediterranean basin have reinforced a nuanced understanding of how regional climate vulnerabilities—water scarcity, desertification, coastal erosion, energy import dependency—intersect with and amplify security challenges, from migration pressures to resource competition.
This work on the security-climate nexus informs his advocacy for integrating climate risk assessments into national security strategies, ensuring that defence and foreign policy establishments treat environmental disruption not as an externality but as a first-order strategic concern. At the 21st IISS Manama Dialogue, he raised a question to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior on how the United States would modernise legacy hydrocarbon security frameworks to anticipate geopolitical shifts—an intervention that underscored his transition from policy analysis to credible interlocution in security-policy circles.
“The Mediterranean functions as a laboratory for the governance challenges the rest of the world will face within a decade.”
Strategic Foresight & Futurist Methodology
Aznague’s work is grounded in strategic foresight—using current climate data and political signals to anticipate future socio-economic and security scenarios. Designated a Futurist through the beVisioneers programme (a global fellowship funded by Mercedes-Benz), and trained in science diplomacy through UNITAR-GESDA’s Geneva Science Diplomacy Week, he applies scenario-planning and horizon-scanning methodologies to project how climate trajectories will reshape Mediterranean regional security, energy economics, and governance structures.
As the founding president of the Morocco Future Foundation (Mu’assasat al-Maghrib lil-Mustaqbal)—the first institution in Morocco explicitly dedicated to strategic foresight—he seeks to institutionalise futures thinking within Moroccan and North African public discourse. The foundation’s mandate is to leverage climate data, geopolitical analysis, and socioeconomic modelling to inform long-range policy design, encouraging scenario planning and horizon scanning across sectors.
His foresight practice argues that climate adaptation and energy transition should be treated as strategic investments rather than humanitarian responses. By advancing this approach, Aznague aims to guide governments and regional organisations in the Mediterranean toward proactive policies that mitigate risk, unlock green economic opportunities, and enhance regional security.
Recognition & Honours
Professional Trajectory
Academic Formation & Credentials
Aznague’s academic trajectory was strategically aligned with his focus on environmental law, climate governance, and multilateral diplomacy. He holds a Master of Arts in International Studies & Diplomacy from Al Akhawayn University, where his thesis examined the role of multilateral diplomacy in mitigating climate change with a focus on loss and damage within the UNFCCC. His Bachelor of Arts in Political Science & International Relations from Mohammed V University, Rabat, produced a thesis on climate diplomacy as an emergent concept in international relations.
Fluent in Arabic (native), English, and French. Member of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law. Member of the Brookings / Rockefeller Foundation 17 Rooms Initiative.