Beyond the Zero-Sum Game: Strengthening the CLEW Nexus through Agrivoltaics Policy and Practice in France and Japan

As climate change keeps applying pressures on food security, water availability, and energy systems, competition for land has emerged as a core challenge in the global energy transition. Agrivoltaics, defined as the co-location of photovoltaic energy production and agricultural activities, has gained attention for being a potential solution to reconcile climate mitigation, climate adaptation, and land-use efficiency. This internship report examines agrivoltaics through the lens of the Climate–Land–Energy–Water (CLEW) Nexus, with a comparative focus on France and Japan, two countries that are characterized by differing climatic conditions, agricultural systems, and policy frameworks. The study aims to assess to what extent agrivoltaics can contribute simultaneously to greenhouse gas mitigation, agricultural and water resilience, and the energy transition, while identifying the policy and governance conditions that enable or constrain these outcomes. The CLEW nexus framework is used to systematically analyse interactions, synergies, and trade-offs between climate, land use, energy production, and water management across policy levels. The findings highlight different national approaches: France prioritizes technologically advanced, highly regulated agrivoltaics systems focused on climate adaptation and yield preservation, while Japan emphasizes more decentralized “solar sharing” models aimed at rural revitalization and farmer income diversification. Despite these differences, both cases show that agrivoltaics can enhance resilience when coupled with coherent policy frameworks and adapted to local socio-environmental contexts. The report concludes that cross-country policy learning, combining France’s rigor with Japan’s model, can strengthen the contribution of agrivoltaics to sustainable land-use transitions and integrated climate strategies.