Increasing the ambition of mitigation action in small emitters: the case of Mauritius

ABSTRACT

The objective of the Paris Agreement is to constrain the global temperature increase to well below 2°C and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. It is undisputed that the collective mitigation actions proposed by Parties are largely insufficient to meet this objective. All Parties are expected to revise their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) prior to the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP 26) with the aim of increasing levels of mitigation ambition. This paper focuses on Mauritius which has no climate mitigation policy and no strategy for low-carbon development. In this context, a number of policy issues are considered, and propositions are made on how the level of ambition of its updated NDC can be increased. For this, energy-related emissions pathways to 2050 are used to argue for an equity-based, effort-sharing approach to CO₂ emissions reductions by capitalizing on a developing country’s ability to propose a combination of unconditional and conditional mitigation contributions. Such a proactive approach will place Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and developing countries in a better position to justify and attract technology transfer, capacity building and climate finance. Further, the energy-climate mitigation nexus is examined to highlight the co-benefits of increasing mitigation ambition. It is shown that, all else being equal, increasing the percentage share of renewables in the electricity mix is necessary but not sufficient for increasing the ambition of mitigation contributions. The insights in this paper are expected to be valuable for other SIDS and small developing countries.

Key policy insights

• A multi-criteria approach is more appropriate for assessing the level of ambition of SIDS and other small emitters than absolute share of global emissions or the percentage share of renewable energies in the energy mix.

• Based on this approach, the climate change mitigation policy orientation of Mauritius is not ambitious.

• As Mauritius updates its NDC, it should apply a systemic approach to investigate emission reduction scenarios across sectors and covering time horizons up to at least 2050, in order to better link national climate change mitigation and sustainable development goals.

KEYWORDS:

• CO₂ emissions
• climate change mitigation
• emission pathways
• equity-based approach
• climate-energy nexus

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://www.2050pathways.org/ – Accessed 18 August 2018.

2 http://2050-calculator-tool.decc.gov.uk/#/home – Accessed 10 July 2020.

3 The levels defined for each lever can be found by clicking on the ‘question mark’ icons at http://mauritius2050calculator.govmu.org/pathways/1111111111111111111111111111/primary_energy_chart/comparator/1111111001110110110110101101 – Accessed 14 October 2020.

4 The New Climate Policy Database lists the sectoral and cross-sectoral policies that have (are) not been (being) implemented (http://www.climatepolicydatabase.org/index.php/Country:Mauritius – Accessed 14 October 2020).

5 Domestic air travel covers air travel between the main island of Mauritius and the second most populated island of Rodrigues.