California, Mexico Announce Action Plan on Climate

calepa.ca.gov
April 30, 2015
Alex Barnum

SACRAMENTO – Following ambitious commitments by both governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, California and Mexico environmental officials today announced a Joint Action Plan that will direct the work of their cooperative agreement to combat climate change.

“California is committed to achieving the goals of our agreement with Mexico,” said California Secretary for Environmental Protection Matthew Rodriquez. “The Joint Action Plan outlines the specific steps that we will take to ensure our partnership delivers tangible results and protects public health and natural resources while investing in a clean economy on both sides of the border.”

The plan comes a day after Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. issued an executive order establishing an aggressive target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in California to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. Last month, Mexico became the first emerging economy to commit to reducing emissions in the post-2020 timeframe, demonstrating critical leadership in the lead-up to U.N. climate negotiations later this year.

"By implementing the actions in this plan, we will increase collaboration across the border, integrating and harmonizing our processes and standards to support a high-efficiency energy system, clean vehicles and healthy ecosystems,” said Mexico’s Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Undersecretary Rodolfo Lacy. “By reaching our goals, we will increase low carbon development in Mexico and California."

The California-Mexico Memorandum of Understanding to Enhance Cooperation on Climate Change and the Environment was signed last summer by Governor Brown, Undersecretary Lacy and Mexican National Forestry Commission Director General Jorge Rescala Pérez. The MOU was part of a broader Trade and Investment Mission to Mexico by Governor Brown.

The MOU commits California and Mexico to a four-year collaboration in four areas: aligning greenhouse gas reduction programs and strategies; improving air quality; collaborating on wildfire emergency response along the border; and strengthening clean vehicle standards.

To implement the MOU, working groups of California and Mexican representatives have been established for each priority area, each with its own goals and deliverables. Each group will report internally on its progress on a quarterly basis, and a public progress report will be released.

The Joint Action Plan, announced today at the Navigating the American Carbon World conference in Los Angeles, includes:

• Developing rigorous monitoring, reporting and verifying of greenhouse gas emissions to support carbon pricing or regulatory mechanisms
• Strengthening air monitoring and emissions reporting along the border to support air quality planning and pollution mitigation efforts
• Updating Mexican vehicle emission standards for greenhouse gases and smog pollution Trainings for wildfire suppression and forest health management methods

The MOU is one of several international agreements that California has pursued to address the impacts of global climate change. In addition to Mexico, Governor Brown has signed accords with leaders from China, Canada, Japan, Israel and Peru to fight climate change, strengthen California’s economic ties and expand cooperation on promising research.

“The Republic of Mexico is not only our closest international neighbor, but one of our greatest allies in the fight for cleaner air and greenhouse gas reductions,” said Secretary Rodriquez “Our agreement with Mexico can serve as a model for collaboration as we work to pave the way for an ambitious, meaningful result from the United Nations negotiations in Paris later this year.”


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