New hope for a vulnerable islandBy facilitating the construction and operation of Mauritius' first large scale solar power plant, this project saves carbon emissions and improves the local population's supply with clean energy. More than 80 percent of the island's electricity is generated from imported coal and heavy fuel oil, which causes massive CO2-emissions. Mauritius' energy consumption is rapidly increasing and the traditional way of meeting the demand would be to add capacities of fossil fuel-fired plants. Thanks to carbon finance a local enterprise was able to construct a 15 MW solar plant. The plant produces an average 22,648 MWh per year which are fed into the national grid. This supplies 35,000 local residents with clean energy and accounts for 2% of Mauritius' electricity production.As a small island state, Mauritius is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, like heavy storms, floods or droughts, which are challenging its socio-economic development. By reducing the amount of emissions from fossil fuel-based electricity generation and promoting renewable energies in the region, the project contributes to climate change mitigation.How does solar energy help fight global warming?Since energy from solar panels is created without burning fossil fuels, it is considered emission-free. The growth of renewable energy production is essential to prevent global warming and secure energy supplies for the future. The amount of emissions saved by a solar energy project is calculated using the baseline method: how much CO2 would be released by generating the same amount of energy using standard energy production methods for the region?