MCB
Klima Neutral 2050 study climate commitments

Making Mauritius a laboratory for the new climate economy

The MCB – Mauritius Commercial Bank – has committed, through strategic support provided by UTOPIES, to an ambitious sustainable development programme, SUCCESS BEYOND NUMBERS, built around three pillars: support for a local and sustainable economy, conservation and enhancement of cultural and environmental heritage, and individual and collective well-being.

After the LOKAL IS BEAUTIFUL initiative focusing on the first pillar in 2019, the MCB wanted to take the floor and focus on the climate crisis, to shed new light on the issue of carbon neutrality for Mauritius, and to share ideas for action and mobilisation to achieve this with all the country’s economic, social and political players… with the aim of raising collective awareness to make Mauritius a real laboratory for the new climate economy.

MISSION

The MCB commissioned UTOPIES to carry out a study to examine the issue of climate neutrality in the context of the territory and the Mauritian economy, in order to propose a path and a mobilisation of all stakeholders towards the carbon neutrality of the Island.

The study has several objectives:

• To raise awareness among all economic players of the vulnerability of the island and its economy to the deleterious effects of the climate crisis, and to convince them of the need for determined and collective action to achieve climate neutrality for the region.
• Propose a path and avenues for mobilisation towards climate neutrality, taking into account all the levers for action available, while preserving the objective of development and economic growth: decarbonisation of the energy mix, reduction of the energy intensity of the economy, massive development of carbon sinks, etc. These are all solutions that outline a new climate economy rich in opportunities for the island.
• Proposing keys to understanding, objectives and specific means of implementation for the various sectors of the local economy

While the study was being drawn up, work was also carried out on MCB’s own commitments to promoting this transition to climate neutrality through its role as a financier of the economy.

RESULTS

The Klima Neutral study was published and presented to the island’s economic and political players at a conference in February 2020.

The study put forward the idea that the climate crisis, which poses threats and challenges, is also an opportunity to invent circular economic models that are more distributed and more local, to speed up the transition to renewable energies, and to develop new products and services as part of a new climate economy. From this perspective, climate neutrality means tackling three major challenges:

• Reducing the energy intensity of the economy by focusing on energy sobriety, but also by reducing international transport distances and developing the circular economy.
• Decarbonising energy by drastically reducing the share of coal and oil in Mauritius’ energy mix and replacing them with renewable energies, whose potential is high on the island.
• Massive development of the island’s carbon sinks, including natural sinks, the strengthening of which will also help to support certain existing markets (tourism) or the emergence of new markets (agricultural or energy).

At the end of the event, MCB also unveiled its own commitments to the climate, focusing on two key areas:

• Helping to make Mauritius the laboratory of the new climate economy by launching several low-carbon financing programmes, halting all new infrastructure and trade financing linked to coal, and offering its corporate customers the opportunity to estimate and offset their greenhouse gas emissions via a Klima Neutral offsetting platform.
• To be a responsible and unifying financial player, by aiming for carbon neutrality in the Group’s operations from 2020 through a strategy of measuring, reducing and offsetting its emissions.