Mauritius: Climate Finance for Mauritius Needs Good Management - Report Finds Gaps

Mauritius is a small African island where natural disasters like floods, cyclones and other extreme weather events have become frequent and intense. They are expected regularly.

Rising sea levels, flash floods and tropical cyclones cause annual direct damage of US$113 million on average every year.

Mauritius needs to adapt to climate change fast. It already has its own government-funded Climate and Sustainability Fund to pay for adaptation. External climate finance organisations, such as the Green Climate Fund and the World Bank, also fund some adaptation projects.

Between 2026 and 2035, Mauritius is projected to spend US$1.5 billion on climate adaptation. But it will need US$5.6 billion more over the next 25 years.

Climate change in small island nations is often framed around rising sea levels, stronger storms and reliance on foreign aid. Less attention is paid to how climate funding is actually managed, and whether governments have the skills and capacity needed to plan, coordinate and use these funds effectively.

My work explores the relationship between climate finance, institutional capacity and governance reform, to help the government build stronger systems for climate adaptation and resilience.

As part of a recent study I interviewed over 40 climate researchers, banking professionals, policymakers, civil society organisations and anti-corruption officials. The aim was to uncover risks, gaps, and pathways for improvement in Mauritius's climate finance landscape.

I found that Mauritius focuses on getting climate funding in. Yet, once funds enter the system, a lack of comprehensive tracking frameworks and reporting mechanisms often make it unclear where the funds go and what they achieve. This creates the risk that money could be mismanaged or fail to reach the communities that need it most.

To address these problems, the government, regulators and civil society need to establish an independent oversight system. Communities should have a greater role in monitoring how climate funds are allocated and used.

Eighty four percent of climate leaders I surveyed viewed corruption as a direct obstacle to climate finance delivery. More than 70% recognised that Mauritius lacks strong civic engagement processes to track how climate funds are raised and spent.

I also found that awareness of climate risks was relatively high. Over 30% of leaders expressed extreme concern about these. But ways of thinking about climate adaptation were largely limited to the need to access international climate finance to pay for projects. Nobody I interviewed spontaneous