Climate Change Law

Consistently with the above, the Law’s main purpose is to regulate direct or indirect anthropogenic emissions to attain the stabilization of their concentration in the atmosphere at a level that prevents hazardous interferences in the climate system. The first goal is to reduce 30% of emissions by 2020, in regard to those issued in year 2000, and the following goal is to increase such reduction to 50% by 2050.

The startup and enforcement of the Law require the responsible, coordinated, and continuous effort of the three levels of government, federal, state, and municipal, and the implementation of access mechanisms for social and private participation in the evaluation of the performance of the public policies on mitigation and adapting measures. Coordination of this complex structure will require for its implementation, on the one hand, creating and adjusting specialized entities and information systems, as well as coordinating and evaluating bodies, and on the other, of legal and economic instruments making implementation possible and encouraging compliance of its objectives.

The Climate Change National Strategy constitutes the guiding instrument of national policy in the mid and long term to deal with the effects of climate change and advance towards an efficient, sustainable, and low-carbon economy. Said strategy will be revised every ten years regarding mitigation matters and every six, on adaptation measures. The current Strategy will continue in force until it’s replacement is published during the first quarter of the year 2013. As to the currently effective Climate Change Special Program, it will expire on November 30, 2013. This federal program must contain the six-year planning as to mitigation and adaptation goals. Regarding mitigation activities, the following matters will prevail: generation and energy use, gas, transportation, agriculture, forests, zoning, industrial processes and waste disposal. On the other hand, regarding adaptation, the key items will be planning related to the integral management of the risk, operation and conservation of water resources, agriculture, stockbreeding, forestry, fishing and aquaculture, ecosystems and biodiversity, energy, industry and services, transportation and communications infrastructure, rural development, environmental development planning and urban development, human settlements, public health infrastructure and services. In their respective jurisdictions, States must enact their own six-year programs.

One of the highlights of the Law is the creation of a Climate Change Fund to be incorporated by the Federal Ministry of Finance within a six month term. The Fund will be managed by a national credit institution who will act as trustee, and its funds will be destined to support the measures to face climate change, including, among others, attending social groups and implementation of sustainable development projects and programs, conservation of natural resources, education, research, as well as to the purchase of certified reductions of emissions and financing of projects registered in the national emissions registry or approved under international agreements to which Mexico is a party, or considered strategic for purposes of climate change.

It is particularly relevant to note that the Law announced the creation of a National Emissions Registry and outlined the creation of a market to exchange certified carbon reductions at a national level. The inclusion of this new institution is consistent with the carbon emission trading system contemplated in the Law to Mitigate and Adapt to Climate Change and Sustainable Development for the Federal District. The integral review of such legislations in their respective jurisdictions denotes the existence of a conceptual harmony at a legislative level and sketches the imminent implementation of a national market of carbon emission reductions. The foregoing is a clever move by the Mexican environmental authorities and denotes Mexico’s intent to become a leader, in the short run, at an American level regarding climate change.

The federation, the states, and the Federal District (Mexico City), in their respective jurisdictions, shall design and implement economic instruments promoting compliance with the goals of the national policy in climate change matters. In the granting of tax incentives, precedence will be given to activities of research, incorporation or use of mechanisms, devices, and technologies preventing, reducing, or controlling emissions, of energy efficiency, as well as development of renewable energies and low carbon technologies, among others.

In order for the Law to be effective, it demands the creation and development of various tasks by the federal public administration (both centralized and decentralized), States, and Municipalities, same tasks which will support the adaptation and mitigation measures. In this scenario, specific terms have been anticipated to comply with these tasks. For example, regarding adaptation measures, the Territory’s General Ecological Regulation Program and the Subprogram for Protection of Biodiversity and Sustainable Management against Climate Change must be available before November 30, 2012. Regarding civil protection matters, the national atlas of risks as well as the State and local atlas of risks identifying the most vulnerable human settlements to climate change, as well as local programs to face it, must be integrated and published before concluding year 2013. When dealing with mitigation measures, by the year 2019, municipalities must develop and construct the required infrastructure to handle solid urban wastes in such a way that methane is not released to the atmosphere in urban areas exceeding a population of fifty thousand, and implement technology to generate power from the methane emissions (biogas to electricity). By 2020, a gradual subsidy system promoting the use of non-fossil fuels, energy efficiency, and sustainable public transportation should have been implemented, as well as an incentives program promoting the generation of electricity from renewable sources. The foregoing in order that by 2024, the electric generation from clean sources reaches a minimum target of 35 percent.

In sum, we are dealing with a complex Law that places its stakes on the sustained efficiency of our centralized and decentralized administration, as well as on the active participation of society as a whole. Likewise, this very ambitious law has sketched the road to establish on the short term a national market of certified carbon reductions, which is an extremely positive proposal in the global fight against climate change. We are facing a titanic but necessary task, which presents huge hurdles to be crossed, but also, huge opportunities to renovate towards a better and sustainable quality of development, in a short period of time.

For further information, please contact your principal Firm representative or one of the lawyers listed below:

Mexico City Office

Ms. Gloria Park T. (Partner)
Mr. Héctor Garza C. (Associate)
Ms. Andrea Cavazzani (Associate)
Tel.: +52 55 5279.5400
Fax: +52 55 5281-3955

Monterrey Office

Mr. José Pozas (Partner)
Tel.: +52 81 8133.6000
Fax: +52 81 8368.0111

Tijuana Office

Mr. Aarón Levet (Partner)
Tel.: +52 664 634.2978