Institutional arrangements to implement the Convention

III. Institutional arrangements
to implement the Convention
3.1 Mexican governmental
policy
To learn how the country is organized to respond to the
global climate change problem, it is necessary to make
reference to the structure of the Government of the
United States of Mexico.
Mexico is a representative, federal and democratic
Republic with three powers of governance: Executive,
Legislative and Judicial, in accordance with the provisions
of the Constitution of the United Mexican States.
Executive Power is exercised by the President of the
Republic who, in compliance with the provisions of Article
26 of the Constitution, has the obligation to organize “a
democratic system of national development planning to imprint strength, dynamism, perseverance and equity to the
growth of the economy”, through a National Development
Plan (Plan Nacional de Desarrollo, PND), to which the programs of the Federal Public Administration (Administración
Pública Federal, APF) will be mandatorily subjected.
The PND sets out national objectives, strategies and
priorities that should govern the actions of government,
carried out by the State Ministries1 through their Sectoral
1 The State Ministries are responsible for a branch of the Federal Public Administration. The Ministries that make up the Cabinet of the
President of the Republic, as at November 2009, are as follows: Interior; Foreign Affairs; Defense; Naval; Public Security; Finance and
Public Credit; Social Development; Environment and Natural Resour-
Programs (Programas Sectoriales, PS).
The PND 2007-2012 takes as its basic premise the
pursuit of Sustainable Human Development, and incorporates criteria of environmental impact and risk, efficient and rational use of natural resources and, for the
first time, explicitly includes the issue of climate change,
with two specific objectives and their respective strategies (PND 2007-2012) (Table III.1).
The Sectoral Programs (2007-2012)2 of seven
Federal Government Ministries have included actions to
address climate change, comprising a total of 17 goals
and 39 strategies (Table III.2).
3.2 Coordination of crosscutting public policy actions
on environmental issues
The PND 2007-2012 establishes cross- cutting actions
designed to improve and consolidate interinstitutional
coordination and cross-sectoral integration in its public
policies. In environmental matters, this function correces; Energy; Economy; Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development,
Fisheries and Food; Communications and Transport; Public Function;
Public Education; Health, Work and Social Welfare; Agrarian Reform,
and Tourism.
2 Sectoral programs are available on the website: http://www.presidencia.gob.mx/progsectoriales.
105
Table III.1. Objectives and strategies of the PND 2007-2012, in terms of climate change.
Objective
Objective 10: Reduce Greenhouse Gas
Emissions
Objective 11: Promote measures of adaptation
to the effects of climate change.
Strategy
Strategy 10.1 Promote efficiency and clean technologies (including
renewable energy) for power generation.
Strategy 10.2 Promote the efficient use of energy in the domestic, industrial, agricultural and transportation spheres.
Strategy 10.3 Promote the adoption of international standards for vehicle
emissions.
Strategy 11.1 Promote the inclusion of aspects of climate change adaptation in the planning and work of the various sectors of society.
Strategy 11.2 Develop the regional climate scenarios of Mexico.
Strategy 11.3 Assess the impacts, vulnerability and adaptation to climate
change in different socio-economic sectors and ecological systems.
Strategy 11.4 Promote the dissemination of information on impacts,
vulnerability and adaptation to climate change.
Source: Prepared using data from the PND 2007-2012.
Table III.2. Objectives and strategies in the face of climate
change included in some sectoral programs.
State Ministry
Agriculture, Livestock,
Rural Development, Fisheries and Food
Communications and
Transport
Social Development
Energy
Environment and Natural
Resources
Health
Tourism
Total
1
Objectives
Strategies
4
2
3
--1
10
1
2
25
1
2
17
1
3
39
Source: Data provided by Sectoral Programs.
sponds to the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, SEMARNAT 2008; PND 2007-2012).
SEMARNAT has three Undersecretaries: Planning and
Environmental Policy, Public Works and Environmental
Regulation, and Management for Environmental
Protection. For climate change issues, the Under
Secretary for Planning and Environmental Policy includes
106
Fourth National Communication of Mexico
the General Direction for Climate Change Projects and
the General Direction for Climate Change Policy.3
Also within this Ministry there is a Coordinating Unit
of International Affairs (Unidad Coordinadora de Asuntos
Internacionales, UCAI), with an office for Climate Change,
and the Education and Training Center for Sustainable
Development (Centro de Educación y Capacitación para
el Desarrollo Sustentable, CECADESU) (Figure III.1)
(SEMARNAT 2009a).
The CECADESU is the Unit of SEMARNAT that coordinates with the responsible agencies and entities of
the APF, the design, development and supervision of
environmental education programs and training for sustainable development. It collaborates with the Ministry
of Public Education to establish and strengthen environmental education programs, including of climate change,
in various levels and types of the National Educational
System.
UCAI is the formal conduit of the Ministry for coordinating the international aspects of programs, activities,
events and forums, and controls the management of all
international activities of the Ministry. It is also respon3 http://www.semarnat.gob.mx/queessemarnat/Documents/organigrama/400%20SSPPA.pdf.
Figure III.1. Areas concerned with the issue of climate change in the central offices of SEMARNAT.
SEMARNAT
Under Secretary of Planning
and Environmental Policy
Coordinating Unit for
International Affairs
Associated General
Direction for International
Cooperation
General Directorate of
Climate Change Policy
Associated General Direction
of Climate Change Policy
Direction of Climate Change
Policy Adaptation
Center of Education and
Training for Sustainable
Development
Associated General Direction
of Climate Change Projects
Direction of Climate
Change
Sub-direction of Climate
Change Projects
Subdirection of Climate
Change
Direction of Climate Change
Mitigation Policies
Department of International
Analysis of Climate Change
Source: Prepared with information from SEMARNAT, 2009c.
sible for signing environmental agreements with foreign
and international organizations, through the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs (SEMARNAT 2009a).
SEMARNAT is supported by the Federal Delegations
and the following delegated bodies: National Water
Commission (Comisión Nacional del Agua, CONAGUA);
National Institute of Ecology (Instituto Nacional de
Ecología, INE); Federal Attorney for Environmental
Protection (Procuraduría Federal de Protección al
Ambiente, PROFEPA); and National Commission of
Protected Natural Areas (Comisión Nacional de Áreas
Naturales Protegidas, CONANP); as well as the decentralized bodies: Mexican Institute of Water Technology
(Instituto Mexicano de Tecnología del Agua, IMTA) and
the National Forestry Commission (Comisión Nacional
Forestal, CONAFOR), and an interministerial body, the
National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of
Biodiversity (Comisión nacional para el Conocimiento y
Uso de la Biodiversidad, CONABIO).
3.3 Interministerial
Commission on Climate
Change
In 2005, the Mexican government created the Interministerial Commission on Climate Change (Comisión Intersecretarial de Cambio Climático, CICC) as a federal body
responsible for formulating public policies and crosscutting strategies for the prevention and mitigation of
Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, adaptation to the
adverse effects of climate change and generally to develop programs and strategies for climate action, as well
as those related to compliance with the commitments
made by Mexico to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and other derived instruments, particularly the Kyoto Protocol.
The ICCC is composed of the heads of the Ministries
of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT);
Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and
Food (Secretaría de Agricultura, Ganadería, Desarrollo
Rural, Pesca y Alimentación, SAGARPA); Communications
Institutional arrangements to implement the Convention
107
and Transport (Secretaría de Comunicaciones y
Transportes, SCT); Economy (Secretaría de Economía,
SE); Social Development (Secretaría de Desarrollo
Social, SEDESOL ); Energy (Secretaría de Energía,
SENER); Interior (Secretaría de Gobernación, SEGOB)
Foreign Affairs (Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores,
SRE), Finance and Public Credit (Secretaría de Hacienda
y Crédito Público, SHCP) and the Ministry of Health
(Secretaría de Salud, SS) and, as permanent members,
the Ministry of Tourism (Secretaría de Turismo, SECTUR)
and the National Institute of Statistics and Geography
(Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía, INEGI).
Other Ministries or federal agencies participate in certain of its Working Groups (Figure III.2) (SEMARNAT,
2009b).
Among the main functions of the ICCC (Article III of
its Agreement) are:
• To act as the Designated National Authority for pur-
• To formulate and submit, for the consideration of the
on the progress of Mexico in this area [Fractions XII and
XIII] (SEMARNAT 2009b).
President of the Republic, national policies and strategies on climate change, for incorporation into the
relevant sectoral programs and actions [fraction I].
• To promote and coordinate the implementation of
national strategies for climate action in the respective areas of responsibility of the federal agencies
[Fraction II].
• To promote the implementation and updating of actions necessary to meet the goals and commitments
of the UNFCCC [Fraction III].
•
•
•
•
poses related to the Clean Development Mechanism
(CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol [Fraction IV].
To formulate the adopted national positions in relevant international forums and organizations [Fraction
V].
To review design documents and projects to reduce
and capture GHG emissions and to issue approval letters for developers who wish to obtain registration
with the CDM of the Kyoto Protocol [Fraction VII].
To promote within the private and social sectors,
as well as the responsible bodies of the three levels
of governance, the development and registration of
projects to reduce and capture emissions [Fraction
X].
To organize information regarding climate action and
to disseminate this information at the national level,
including the production of an annual public report
The head of SEMARNAT is permanently in charge of
the Presidency of the ICCC, the deputy chairman is the
Under Secretary of Planning and Environmental Policy
of this Ministry, who is also responsible for the Technical
Secretariat of the Commission, through its Deputy
General Directorate of Climate Change Projects. To perform its functions, the ICCC has the following working
groups (SEMARNAT, 2009b):
Figure III.2. Interministerial Commission on Climate Change.
SEMARNAT
C4
CCDS
Expert
Opinion
Social
Participation
Presidency and Technical Secretariat
Liaison
SAGARPA
SALUD
SCT
SE
SEDESOL
SEDESOL
SHCP
SENER
SRE
Permanent members
SECTUR
GTPEEC
GTADAPT
Source: Modified from SEMARNAT, 2009.
108
Fourth National Communication of Mexico
INEGI
GT INT
COMEGEI
Liaison
Legislature
CONAGO
• Working
Group for the Special Climate Change
Program (Grupo de Trabajo para el Programa Especial
de Cambio Climático, GT-PECC), coordinated by
the Under Secretary of Planning and Environmental
Policy of SEMARNAT, which gathers information for
the annual ICCC public reports of climate action. This
group coordinated the formulation of the National
Strategy on Climate Change (Estrategia Nacional
de Cambio Climático, ENACC), published in 2007.
Based on the ENACC, the Special Climate Change
Program (Programa Especial de Cambio Climático,
PECC) 2009-2012, was produced. To support the
development of the PECC, several studies were conducted, most notably, “The Economics of Climate
Change in Mexico” (“La economía del cambio
climático en México”) (SEMARNAT, SHCP, 2009);
“Climate change in Mexico and the potential for sectoral emission reduction” (“El cambio climatico en
México y el potencial de reducción de emisiones por
sectores”), (Quadri, 2008); “Low-Carbon Growth, a
potential path for Mexico”, (CMM McKinsey, 2008);
and “Low-carbon development for Mexico”, (World
Bank 2009).
• Mexican
Committee for Projects to Reduce
Emissions and Capture Greenhouse Gases (Comité
Mexicano para Proyectos de Reducción de Emisiones
y de Captura de Gases de Efecto Invernadero,
COMEGEI), coordinated by the Associated General
Direction for Climate Change Projects, is responsible
for promoting, disseminating and evaluating projects for the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM,
planned in Article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol).
• Working
Group on International Affairs (Grupo
de Trabajo sobre Asuntos Internacionales, GT-INT),
coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
promotes interministerial harmonization to define
Mexico’s position in international forums, particularly
in the Conferences of the Parties to the UNFCCC, in
the Meeting of Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, and in
meetings of the Subsidiary Bodies of the UNFCCC.
• Working
Group on Adaptation Policies and
Strategies (Grupo de Trabajo sobre Políticas y
Estrategias de Adaptación, GT-ADAPT), coordi-
nated by INE and composed of the nine Ministerial
members of the ICCC, and the Ministries of Tourism
and the Interior through the General Coordination of
Civil Protection and the National Center for Disaster
Prevention (Centro Nacional de Prevención de
Desastres, CENAPRED).
Based on Article 10 of the Agreement which gave rise
to the Commission, a Climate Change Advisory Council
(C4) was created as a permanent consultative body of
the ICCC. The C4 monitors the work of the Commission
and makes recommendations that lead to improvements
or strengthening of its actions. This consists of 24 specialists from the academic, social and private sectors, and
is chaired by Dr. Mario Molina Pasquel, winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry 1995 (SEMARNAT, 2009b).
3.4 National Energy Council
The National Energy Council has, as its principal task,
to propose the criteria and elements of energy policy to
SENER and to participate in the production of the National Energy Strategy. Its establishment was published
in the Official Gazette of the Federation (Diario Oficial de la Federación, DOF) in November 2008, as an
amendment to article 33 of the Organic Law of the Federal Public Administration.
The National Energy Council has a consultative forum in which participate, depending on the issues under
consideration, representatives of federal and state legislatures, local authorities, public institutions of higher education and scientific research and the social and private
sectors, to contribute to the performance of the planning tasks that fall to the Council, and to promote citizen
participation.
The Council is made up of the Chair and the
Undersecretaries of Energy Planning and Technological,
Hydrocarbon and Electricity Development, as well
as the Head of SENER, the President of the National
Hydrocarbon Commission, the Chairman of the Energy
Regulatory Commission (Comisión Reguladora de
Energía, CRE) and the Directors-General of: the National
Institutional arrangements to implement the Convention
109
Figure III.3. Structure of the Coordination of the Climate Change Program of the National Institute of Ecology.
Coordination of the Climate
Change Program
Direction of the Climate
Change Research
Sub direction of Methods and Studies
for the Mitigation of Climate Change
in the Agriculture, Livestock and
Forestry Sectors
Sub direction of Methods and
Studies for the Mitigation of
Climate Change in the Energy
Sector
Department of Methods and
Studies of Mitigation in the
Forestry Sector
Department of Methods and
Studies of Mitigation in issues of
Energy and Industry
Department of Production
and Monitoring of National
Communications
Department of Methods and
Studies of Mitigation in the Field
of Development of Inventories of
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Department of Information
Dissemination on Climate
Change
Department of Quality Control
of the Information of National
Inventories of Greenhouse Gas
Emissions
Commission for Energy Efficiency (Comisión Nacional
para el Uso Eficiente de la Energía, CONUEE before
CONAE), the National Commission for Nuclear Security
and Safety, Mexican Petroleum (Petroleos Mexicanos,
PEMEX), the Federal Electricity Commission (Comisión
Federal de Electricidad, CFE ), the Mexican Petroleum
Institute (Instituto Mexicano del Petróleo, IMP), the
National Institute for Nuclear Research (Instituto
Nacional de Investigaciones Nucleares, ININ), the
Electric Research Institute (Instituto de Investigaciones
Eléctricas, IIE) and the National Water Commission
(Comisión Nacional del Agua, CONAGUA) (SENER,
2009a).
3.5 Advisory Council for
Sustainable Energy Use
This Council is a consultative body of the CONUEE,
which aims to assess the fulfillment of the objectives,
strategies, actions and targets established in the National Program for Sustainable Use of Energy, which is being
110
Subdirection of Studies on the
Vulnerability and Adaptation to
Climate Change and Local and
Global Co-beneficiaries
Fourth National Communication of Mexico
Department of Evaluation
Studies on the Vulnerability and
Options of Adaptation to Climate
Change and Local and Global
Co-beneficiaries
Department of Studies on the
Options of Mitigation and
Adaptation to Climate Change
and Local and Global
Co-beneficiaries
y Cobeneficios Locales y Globales
Departamento de Estudios
sobre Impactos
Department of Studies on
Socioeconomic Impacts of
Climate Change
produced by SENER, through the CONUEE, and will be a
Special Program in terms of the Planning Law.4
The main functions of the Council include the proposal of mechanisms for planning, developing and implementing energy efficiency programs and the promotion of participation and linking civil society and private
sector organizations, academic and public sector institutions, as well as the general population, in the application
of programs for sustainable use of energy.
As stipulated in the Law for Sustainable Use of Energy,
(Ley para el Aprovechamiento Sustentable de la Energía,
LASE, see Section 5.1.2), the Council is chaired by the
Head of the Ministry of Energy, and is composed of six
academic researchers, members of the National System
of Researchers of the National Council for Science and
Technology (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología,
CONACYT), designated by the Ministry of Energy, on
the proposal of CONUEE. This Council was established
in October 2009 (SENER 2009b).
4 www.diputados.gob.mx/LeyesBiblio/doc/59.doc. Consulted October 26, 2009.
3.6 Advisory Council for
Renewable Energies
In October 2009 the Advisory Council for Renewable Energies was established. It has as its main task to deliver
expert opinions to SENER on the issues of renewable energy, including those that are embodied in the Special Program for the Use of Renewable Energies, and to support
the Ministry of Energy in the design of public policies that
promote the participation of people and sectors involved
in this field, with the objective of formulating and implementing measures to promote energy transition.
According to the Law for the Use of Renewable
Energy and Energy Transition Funding (see Section 5.1.2)
there are 14 members that make up the Consultative
Council, a representative of SEMARNAT, SE, SHCP and
SAGARPA; as well as a representative from each of the
CRE, CONUEE, CFE and various representatives of the
nation´s energy sector. Essentially, these are the leaders
in this field and those who have carried out the work
and studies in our country, in the Associations and in the
Energy Research Center of the National Autonomous
University of Mexico.
3.7 Elaboration of National
Communications
INE-SEMARNAT has, as part of its functions, to contribute to
fulfilling the commitments made by Mexico to the UNFCCC and to the international community. Through the
Coordination of the Program of Climate Change (Coordinación del programa de Cambio Climático, CPCC) (Figure III.3), it is responsible for periodically updating the
National Inventory of Emissions of Greenhouse Gases
(Inventario Nacional de Emisiones de gases de Efecto
Invernadero, INEGEI); conducting studies for the mitigation of GHG emissions; evaluation of vulnerability and
options for adaptation to climate change; developing
GHG emissions scenarios; conducting studies on cobenefits of mitigation of GHG emissions, and coordinating
the production of national communications to the UNFCCC.
The national communications are produced with the
participation of various research centers and of higher
education, public and private institutions of the country;
various government agencies as well as nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector.
Since the first communication, there has been a continuous process of increase and strengthening of the
institutional and technical capacities needed for development. Some of the scientists and technicians who
collaborate in this process were also involved in working groups of the Fourth Assessment Report of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in
2007.
References
Banco Mundial 2009. México; Low Carbon Development for
Mexico. Johnson, Todd, Claudio Alatorre, Zayra Romo y
Feng Liu. World Bank, Washington, D.C.
CMM-McKinsey 2008. Crecimiento de bajo carbono. Una
ruta potencial para México (Low Carbon Growth: a potential Path for Mexico). United Kingdom.
Constitución Política de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos. 2009
(original 1917). Last reforma available in en: http://www.
diputados.gob.mx/LeyesBiblio/ref/cpeum.htm.
Diario Oficial de la Federación (DOF). 2005. ACUERDO
por el que se crea con carácter permanente la Comisión
Intersecretarial de Cambio Climático. Monday 25th April.
Available in: http://www.semarnat.gob.mx/queessemarnat/politica_ambiental/cambioclimatico/Documents/
CICC/050425%20DOF%20Acuerdo.crea.CICC.pdf.
Presidencia de la República. 2007. Plan Nacional de Desarrollo
2007-2012. Mexico. Available in: http://pnd.calderon.
presidencia.gob.mx.
Quadri, G. 2008. El cambio climático en México y potencial
de emisiones por sectores. Mexico.
SEMARNAT. 2008. Logros de la Instrumentación de la
Estrategia de Transversalidad de Políticas Públicas para
el Desarrollo Sustentable en la Administración Pública
Federal (APF) en 2008, Mexico D.F. 55 pp.
———. 2009a. Oficina del C. Subsecretario de Planeación.
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Institutional arrangements to implement the Convention
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———. 2009b. Comisión Intersecretarial de Cambio
Climático. Available in: http://www.semarnat.gob.mx/
queessemarnat/politica_ambiental/cambioclimatico/
Pages/cicc.aspx.
———. 2009c. http://www.semarnat.gob.mx/queessemarnat/Pages/estructuraorganica.aspx.
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Fourth National Communication of Mexico
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Energía, Mexico.
———. 2009b. http://www.conuee.gob.mx/wb/CONAE/
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