PORT LOUIS: Mauritius is planning a first batch of carbon credit projects aimed at boosting the use of renewable energy on the Indian Ocean island.
The world's rapidly-developing carbon markets allow polluters to invest in clean energy projects in poor countries. That way, rich countries earn carbon credits that help them meet targets on reducing greenhouse gas emissions blamed for climate change.
A senior Mauritian environment ministry official said the United Nations' Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) would provide an excellent opportunity for the 1.3 million population of Mauritius to win more foreign investment.
"The CDM provides us with the opportunity to get into clean energy, which is one of the objectives of the government and it also helps to attract foreign direct investment," said Sateeaved Seebaluck, the environment ministry's permanent secretary.
"We have about 4 or 5 projects that are in the pipeline," he said this week. The most advanced of the carbon credit proposals is from a power plant that generates electricity by burning bagasse, a sugarcane residue, officials say.
"We expect to be generating 200,000 tonnes of carbon credits per year," Rajiv Ramlugon, the power plant's environmental manager said, adding that he expected an answer from the CDM around the end of July.
Set to generate 33 per cent of electricity by 2015 from 19 per cent at present, sugarcane is a major source of renewable energy for Mauritius. This increased use of sugar in electricity production will eventually displace about 300,000 tonnes of coal every year, saving nearly a million tonnes of carbon dioxide, said Babu Rajpati, executive director of the Mauritius Sugar Authority.
Mauritius imported 401,600 tonnes of coal in 2007, according to official data. The two projects likely to be submitted for carbon credits next are a wind farm on Rodrigues island and a hydro energy project, officials said.
Projects for solar energy water heaters, the collection of methane from a landfill site, and burning waste for energy are also potential candidates, officials said.
"Typically 20 to 40,000 tonnes (of carbon dioxide saved) per year would give a good return (on construction). But we don't have a lot of those projects," said Sanju Deenapanray, a U.N. project coordinator in Mauritius. Equal to about one tonne of carbon dioxide, a single carbon credit under the CDM is worth between 14 and 15 euros ($23.37) per year, he added.
