A capacity-building workshop on preparing bankable projects to access climate finance opened, this morning, at Caudan Arts Centre, Port Louis, in the presence of the Minister of Environment, Solid Waste Management and Climate Change, Mr Kavydass Ramano.

The aim of the workshop is to strengthen institutional capacities to mobilise funds from international donors for the implementation of the updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) 2021. Experts from the international consulting firm, Agrer, who are currently fielding a mission in Mauritius under the Mauritius Green Climate Fund (GCF) Readiness and Preparatory Support Programme at the level of the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development, are the resource persons for the capacity-building workshop. Participants are being sensitised on GCF procedures, funding mechanism as well as project conceptualisation and formulation.

In his address, Minister Ramano recalled that since February this year, the consultants have initiated a series of consultation and training sessions and that the present workshop aims at providing all stakeholders with the required information on the operational modalities, terminologies and different templates used under the GCF. This capacity building exercise is therefore crucial since poor understanding of the evaluation criteria of funding agencies may result in rendering the processes lengthier and often jeopardise its retention, he added.

Speaking about the NDC 2021, he pointed out that Mauritius has taken the commitment at global level to reduce 40% greenhouse gas emission by 2030. The total financial needs, he said, for implementing the NDC measures are estimated at USD 6.5 billion with USD 4.5 billion for adaptation and USD 2 billion for mitigation. He affirmed that despite the challenging economic situation, the Government has taken the commitment to provide an unconditional support for the implementation of its NDC of 35% share of the total financial needs of USD 6.5 billion amounting to USD 2.3 billion.

While acknowledging the challenges of climate finance mobilisation and access to funding windows in various international forums, Minister Ramano stated that during the period 2016 to 2021, Mauritius has only been able to mobilise some USD 90 M, mostly grant funding, from the Global Environment Facility, Green Climate Fund, Adaptation Fund and friendly countries through the EU and AFD. Hence the need, he underlined, of having trained local resources who are able to timely draft the project ideas and concepts to the satisfaction of the funding agency.

As regards the climate issue in Mauritius, he noted that the country has been experiencing more and more extreme weather events during the past years namely torrential rains, flash floods, storm surges, heat stress, and late winter and summer seasons. Our average temperature rises of 1.39 degree Celsius and sea level rise of 5.6 millimetres per year have exceeded the global averages, he stated.

The Environment Minister further dwelt on some facts and figures pertaining to vulnerability assessment on Mauritius in 2021. They include: Mauritius may become a water-scarce region by 2030 and projections indicate that the utilisable water resources may decrease by up to 13 % by 2050 if no action is taken to restore catchment areas; rising temperatures are expected to lead to shifts in agricultural zones, lower crop productivity, increase mortality in poultry and the incidence of pests and crop diseases; projected increase in occurrence of coral bleaching would reduce coral biodiversity and fish species for both Mauritius and Rodrigues; increase in flooding events along with extreme heat, are expected to affect infrastructure and livelihoods; and increase in waterborne and vector-borne diseases.

He underlined that based on these findings, the Inter-Ministerial Council on Climate Change held on 28 September 2021, chaired by the Prime Minister, took the decision for Mauritius to join the countries which are in a state of climate emergency. Against this bleak background, a green recovery, based on sustainable development and self-sufficiency, is critical, he concluded.