A community technician holds a Global Positioning System (GPS) device to monitor land use change.
Photo Credit: USAID/Mexico Competitiveness Program
Mexico’s historic new climate change legislation could make Mexico the second country in the world to pass comprehensive national climate change legislation. An Abt Associates-led project has played a key role in the legislation. The General Law on Climate Change aims to reduce the country’s emissions by 30 percent below current levels by 2020, and 50 percent below 2000 levels by 2050, if developed countries provide technological and financial resources. As part of the law, mandatory emissions reporting and a national emissions registry are required.
The USAID-funded Mexico Competitiveness Program, led by Abt Associates, was cited twice in the bill. The Mexico Competitiveness Program promotes innovation among small businesses, the adoption of clean energy technology and improved environmental policy management to mitigate climate change and preserve Mexican biodiversity.
As part of this effort, the Mexican government has utilized Abt Associates’ web-based technology that enables continuous monitoring and transparent reporting of reductions of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from federal projects. This tool plays a major role in Mexico’s strategy to address climate change, and significantly increases the global credibility of governmnent claims related to CO2 reductions.
The technology, known as CarbonCounts™, assists governments, companies, and organizations in managing climate change actions and programs. It consolidates reporting and verification of progress of climate change initiatives, such as reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, adaptation, and cross-cutting efforts.
The Mexico Competitiveness Program also provided assistance in building legal capacity for climate change, policy analysis and development of policy goals, and institutional capacity building. A white paper developed by the Program informed the Law’s provisions on the greenhouse gas registry and solved conceptual problems of a previous bill that used “top down” inventories and “bottom up” registries interchangeably.
The program also produced several economic studies on the impact on carbon emissions of economic growth, energy use and agricultural production. The economic analysis also estimated the distributional effects of taxes that could be potentially introduced to curb fossil fuel consumption. The studies present hard data and rigorous methodology to demonstrate that “business as usual” policies are unlikely to have a significant impact on reducing Mexico’s future carbon emissions.
“The new law and the use of our tool are examples of Abt’s impact in climate change,” said Tim Kessler, Chief of Party for the Mexico Competiveness Program. “We were able to draw upon a diverse set of disciplines to apply expertise on a range of climate change issues, helping us craft approaches to efficiently deliver results in climate mitigation and adaptation efforts.”
According to Fernando Tudela, Mexico’s Undersecretary of Environmental Policy and Planning, the activities supported by Abt will result in “a better and more effective application of environmental laws and will help provide legal certainty to investments and competitiveness in Mexico, while simultaneously incorporating natural resources conservation and environmental protection into the activities of development sectors.”