Jalisco - Administration sets an example in reducing its carbon footprint

Territorial assessment of climate action

2018

Association Climate Chance (Climate Chance)

Since 2015, the Climate Chance Association has been involved in the mobilization in the fight against climate change. It is the only international association that proposes to bring together on an equal footing all non-state actors recognized by the UN. In order to strengthen their action and to give credibility to the climate stabilization scenarios, the Climate Chance Association launched in 2018 a Global Observatory of Non-State Climate Action, which aims to explain the evolution of greenhouse gas emissions, by crossing national public policies, with sectoral dynamics, private actors’ strategies, local public policies and actions undertaken by local actors. In order to analyse the coherence of local public policies, Climat Chance proposes an assessment of « territorial mobilisations » through selected examples of cities and regions. Here, the free and sovereign state of Jalisco in Mexico.

As a member of the Under2 Coalition, the State of Jalisco has committed to reducing its emissions by 80-95% by 2050. Jalisco has equipped itself with several major tools (here in video) for its climate policy with the adoption of the 2015 Law for Action on Climate Change, which enabled the establishment of an inter-institutional commission to coordinate and implement its climate policy, and finally an Energy Agency whose mission is to ensure energy security and efficiency and clean energy production. Its 2018 action plan, drawn up after extensive public consultation, estimates GHG emissions in 2014 at 28.4 MtCO2eq, also taking into account emissions related to land use, broken down as follows: energy 60% (16.9 MtCO2eq), agriculture, forestry and other land use AFOLU 19% (5.5 MtCO2eq), waste 14% (4.1 MtCO2eq) and industrial processes 7% (2 MtCO2eq). Transportation alone accounts for 39% of Jalisco’s total emissions. Per capita emissions in 2014 amount to 3.63 tCO2e, compared with a national average of 4.16 tCO2e in 2013 (INECC, 2015).

JALISCO - THE ADMINISTRATION, A PRIORITY FOR LIMITING GHG EMISSIONS

In 2014, Jalisco was one of the two federal states that benefited from the « Low Carbon States of Mexico » pilot programme, which aims to support them for one year in the development of an emissions management plan for their administrations (issued in 2016), and to give them the means to make significant savings on energy costs, in order to reduce its emissions from energy combustion by 40% by 2018 (compared to 2013). The energy efficiency measures implemented as a result of this project and introduced in the public administration represent savings equivalent to the electricity used for one year in 2,794 households or the stopping of nearly 4,000 passenger cars every day. The savings achieved for the optimal use of electricity in public buildings amount to almost 4 million pesos per year. In 2017, efforts have been concentrated on replacing traditional light fixtures with LED-type fixtures in the facilities of the Ministry of Culture (SC), the Ministry of Infrastructure and Public Works (SIOP) and the Ministry of Mobility (SEMOV). With these measures, the government plans to reduce by the end of 2018 the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the energy consumption of public facilities by approximately 20% compared to the emissions of 2014.

PROMOTE SILVIPASTORAL LIVESTOCK TO REDUCE THE CARBON FOOTPRINT OF LIVESTOCK

The State of Jalisco is the second with the highest rate of deforestation, with 522,000 ha lost and 493,000 ha degraded between 1993 and 2012 (CONAFOR, 2016). The AFOLU sector is responsible for 19% of the territory’s GHG emissions. Sixty-five per cent of these emissions come from livestock farming, particularly pigs and cattle, which account for 95 per cent of the emissions linked to enteric fermentation. In order to reduce these emissions, Jalisco has focused since 2016 on increasing silvopastoral breeding and preserving pasture biodiversity. In collaboration with 36 municipalities in the Associations of Municipalities for Sustainable Development and the University of Guadalajara as a technical partner, 22 projects have already been launched, with the State of Jalisco financing half of the costs, up to USD 200,000. Also, through a REDD payment system, the State is supporting the implementation of low-carbon rural development projects in the coastal basins : preservation of fauna and flora, conservation agriculture and agroforestry, etc. The State of Jalisco is also supporting the implementation of a REDD payment system in the coastal basins.

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