ACHIEVING MEXICO’S CLIMATE GOALS: AN EIGHT-POINT ACTION PLAN

The report identifies a set of 21 cost-effective and technically feasible policies that can enable Mexico to meet its 2030 climate goals. It proposes two scenarios: an unconditional package to reduce GHG emissions by 22% below the baseline and a conditional package for a 36% reduction. The analysis indicates that Mexico can achieve these targets while realizing significant net financial savings and public health benefits through reduced particulate matter pollution. The proposed eight-point action plan prioritizes industrial efficiency, methane capture, and carbon pricing as the most impactful interventions.

• Mexico can meet its unconditional GHG emission reduction target of 22% below the baseline by 2030 using 19 policies, resulting in cumulative net expenditure savings of over 500 billion pesos, which is approximately 2% of 2015 GDP.
• To reach the conditional target of a 36% reduction below the baseline by 2030, Mexico could implement a more ambitious policy package that achieves net savings in direct expenditures of nearly 200 billion pesos, or about 0.8% of 2015 GDP.
• Three policies are primary drivers for both scenarios, accounting for about 50% of the required emission reductions: industrial efficiency standards, a carbon tax, and methane capture.
• In the unconditional scenario, industrial efficiency standards provide the highest abatement (24%), followed by methane capture (15%) and a carbon tax at US$15/tCO2e (12%). In the conditional scenario, the carbon tax at US$55/tCO2e is the strongest contributor (19%), followed by methane capture (18%) and industrial efficiency standards (15%).
• Implementing the proposed policy packages would significantly reduce particulate matter pollution and save human lives between 2015 and 2030. The unconditional scenario could save 15,228 lives, while the conditional scenario could save a total of 16,300 lives.
• The report warns of 'carbon lock-in' risk, where investments in natural gas-fired power generation and fossil-fueled vehicles may hinder Mexico's ability to reach net zero emissions by mid-century if not phased out or offset.
• Transportation demand management is identified as the policy with the most cost savings, as shifting modes to passenger buses or nonmotorized transport reduces fuel consumption.

APA

ALTAMIRANO, J.-C., SÁNCHEZ, E. O., RISSMAN, J., ROSS, K., FRANSEN, T., SOLÁ, C. B., & MARTINEZ, J. (2016). ACHIEVING MEXICO’S CLIMATE GOALS: AN EIGHT-POINT ACTION PLAN. Energy Innovation. https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/WRI_OCN_Mexico_final.pdf

Chicago

ALTAMIRANO, JUAN-CARLOS, ERIKA ORTIZ SÁNCHEZ, JEFFREY RISSMAN, KATHERINE ROSS, TARYN FRANSEN, CARLOS BROWN SOLÁ, and JULIA MARTINEZ. ACHIEVING MEXICO’S CLIMATE GOALS: AN EIGHT-POINT ACTION PLAN. Energy Innovation, 2016. https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/WRI_OCN_Mexico_final.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=ALTAMIRANO |first1=JUAN-CARLOS |last2=SÁNCHEZ |first2=ERIKA ORTIZ |last3=RISSMAN |first3=JEFFREY |last4=ROSS |first4=KATHERINE |last5=FRANSEN |first5=TARYN |last6=SOLÁ |first6=CARLOS BROWN |last7=MARTINEZ |first7=JULIA |title=ACHIEVING MEXICO’S CLIMATE GOALS: AN EIGHT-POINT ACTION PLAN |publisher=Energy Innovation |date=November 2016 |url=https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/WRI_OCN_Mexico_final.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{altamirano2016achieving, author = {ALTAMIRANO, JUAN-CARLOS and SÁNCHEZ, ERIKA ORTIZ and RISSMAN, JEFFREY and ROSS, KATHERINE and FRANSEN, TARYN and SOLÁ, CARLOS BROWN and MARTINEZ, JULIA}, title = {{ACHIEVING MEXICO’S CLIMATE GOALS: AN EIGHT-POINT ACTION PLAN}}, institution = {Energy Innovation}, year = {2016}, month = nov, url = {https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/WRI_OCN_Mexico_final.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }