Developing technical capacities for the operation of the Mexican Emissions Trading System

In January 2020, Mexico started the pilot phase of its first emissions trading system (ETS) as part of the country’s climate change mitigation strategy to achieve its Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement. The pilot phase will run for three years, before transitioning to the first phase of the national carbon market. The purpose of the pilot is to generate robust and high-quality information on emissions, test the design of the system and give participants the opportunity to familiarize themselves with emissions trading.

In order to strengthen the understanding of key public sector officials, industry representatives and academics about the technical aspects of the functioning of an ETS and the requirements for effective implementation of the instrument in the Mexican context, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in cooperation with the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) launched a project to organize a study trip to Germany between October 27 and November 1, 2019. This study trip focused, among other things, on ETS basics and ETS around the world, the status and design of the Mexican pilot ETS, the institutional framework of the EU ETS and the implementation in Germany, decarbonisation strategies of energy-intensive industries and power generators under the ETS, and lessons learned on ETS from the perspective of operators.

adelphi and FutureCamp supported the study trip by implementing and evaluating a training needs assessment with participants prior to the study trip and by developing a detailed agenda. They developed a moderator’s guide based on the specific needs and knowledge levels of the participants, facilitated the daily training sessions and interactive sessions, and assessed knowledge gains and overall satisfaction on contents and logistics. With its contribution to this project, adelphi helped increase the level of knowledge of key stakeholders in the Mexican context about the design and function of an ETS.