Mauritius

When: 2023–2025

Purpose: Strengthen national capacity in a SIDS context to conduct integrated climate, land, energy, and water systems analysis for policy coherence, climate resilience, and green-economy planning.

Key insights:

• Mauritius’ nexus choices are shaped by structural import dependence: the country imports about 70% of its food and over 80% of its energy.
• First-generation ethanol from sugarcane can reduce gasoline imports & GHG emissions, but it increases water & electricity demands for irrigation & pumping.
• Second-generation ethanol can reduce gasoline use further, but diverting bagasse away from electricity generation can increase coal & distillate imports, offsetting part of the benefit.
• Under the worst-case climate scenario, 2030 water withdrawals for first-generation ethanol rise to 370 million m3 (40 million m3 above baseline).
• Reduced precipitation makes rainfed sugarcane less suitable in northern & western areas, strengthening the case for drought-resilient crop choices & irrigation strategies.

Resources: Mauritius CLEWs project draft and IAEA/FAREI CLEW case-study material.

Models: CLEWs

Stakeholders: National Government, FAREI, UN DESA, IAEA.