Mexico - Low-Carbon Development : Main Report

This study analyzes a range of energy
efficiency options available in Mexico, including
supply-side efficiency improvements in the electric power
and oil and gas industries and demand-side electricity
efficiency measures to limit high-growth energy-consuming
activities, such as air conditioning and refrigeration. It
also evaluates a range of renewable energy options that make
use of the country's vast wind, solar, biomass, hydro,
and geothermal resources. But low-carbon (CO2) development
is not only about energy production and consumption. In
Mexico one of the most important sources of greenhouse gas
emissions continues to be emissions from deforestation. The
rate of deforestation has fallen steadily in Mexico over the
past decades. Expanded programs for forest management,
wildlife conservation, and efforts to increase the stock of
forests can provide needed employment in rural areas and
help make Mexican forests net absorbers of CO2 in the coming
years. A fundamental question often asked about low-cost
mitigation options is why they are not already being
undertaken. As the study shows, the availability of
commercial technology and even low financial costs is often
not enough to overcome barriers related to institutional and
knowledge gaps, regulatory and legal constraints, or
societal norms. Inability to surmount these
'transactions costs' is typically at the root of
the problem of why supposedly low-cost actions are not
undertaken. To partially overcome this dilemma, one of the
explicit criteria used in this study for identifying
low-carbon measures was that they had already been
implemented on some scale in Mexico or in a similar economy
outside of Mexico. In order to mainstream low-carbon
development, a package of new stimuli will be needed,
including public and consumer education and training, public
demonstrations, standards and regulations, and financial incentives.