Adding value with CLEWS – Modelling the energy system and its interdependencies for Mauritius

Climate, energy, water and land-use systems are closely integrated, but most related decision- and policy-making occurs in disparate institutional entities, informed by relatively disconnected assessments of the individual resource systems.

This paper presents the added value of an integrated analytical assessment approach. In doing so, it explicitly values various interdependencies and interactions between these systems, primarily from an energy sector perspective. The island state of Mauritius was identified as a useful case study given its diverse climate, its increasing water stresses, and its policy focus on reshaping agricultural land use and reducing fossil fuel imports.

Several scenarios to 2030 were defined and analysed to demonstrate the tensions around the nexus of these systems. Results from an assessment of the energy system with no modelled interlinkages to land use, energy and water systems are first presented. Then, these are compared to those from an integrated assessment. This serves to highlight important dynamics that would have been overlooked without such a systems approach. As an example, the added value of this approach is clearly demonstrated when rainfall reductions are taken into account, and where future land-use changes might occur.

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