The Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have adopted a mission to cut greenhouse gas emissions by half. Despite this, there is no consensus on quantifying progress or employing indicators—partly due to the scarcity of reliable universal emission measures or proxy indicators.
In 2015 Mexico committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 22% by 2030 and 50% by 2050. Furthermore, in 2020, Mexico ratified the Paris Agreement commitments and missed an opportunity to increase its climate ambition, as many other countries did by expanding their targets; to reduce emissions by 50% by 2030, as recommended by the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). During the country’s most recent Paris Agreement pledge, they ratified the same commitments made in 2015. These included a 51% decrease in black carbon emissions by 2030. And by 2024, clean energy sources will account for 35% of total power generation, rising to 43% by 2030.
This post aims to contribute to establishing climate mitigation performance indicators for Mexico. It is hoped that country-specific progress indicators will facilitate cross-country analysis. This post identifies and describes four performance indicators that are frequently used to measure the progress for Mexico to reduce its emissions.
It is crucial to identify and use performance indicators to measure the progress of climate action in any country, but especially for countries that are major emitters of greenhouse gases, such as Mexico. This starts with proper strategic planning to identify environmental action through specific key performance indicators. In this way, the appropriate follow-up of mitigation actions can be more efficient to combat the problem according to its causes, risk factors, context, budget, etc. These data must be quantitatively and qualitatively measurable but reliable and accurate. If there is no precise data when measuring, it is impossible to know if there have been changes with the mitigation actions that have been carried out, and consequently, there is no scale to indicate progress. Therefore, there can be no continuous improvement, identifying what worked and what did not, and resources will be spent in vain, decreasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the intervention.
The following table describes the type of the performance indicator, reliability, and the source needed to access the data, among other details.
TABLE
| Performance indicator | Reliability of the indicator | Frequency of data updating | Latest available value | Last available date | Source |
| Number of people killed, missing, and directly affected by disasters per 100,000 inhabitants. | High. | Annual. | 4,469.7 | 2021 | https://agenda2030.mx/ODSind.html?ind=ODS013000050010&cveind=484&cveCob=99&lang=es#/Indicator |
| Percentage share of clean energies in the electric power generation matrix. | High | Annual | 27.7% | 2021 | https://agenda2030.mx/ODSind.html?ind=ODS007000600010&cveind=454&cveCob=99&lang=es#/Indicator |
| Total carbon dioxide emissions per GDP by purchasing power parity. | High | Semiannual | 0.347 (Kilograms of CO2 per dollar) | 2015 | https://agenda2030.mx/ODSind.html?ind=ODS009000300050&cveind=48&cveCob=99&lang=es#/Indicator / |
| Number of electric vehicles. | High | Annual | 39100 units | 2021 | https://es.statista.com/estadisticas/1114981/volumen-ventas-vehiculos-electricos-hibridos-mexico/#:~:text=El%20n%C3%BAmero%20de%20veh%C3%ADculos%20el%C3%A9ctricos,de%20autom%C3%B3viles%20registrado%20en%202020. |
Mexico must accept its share of responsibility, which comes with being one of the world’s top 20 GHG emitters. In addition, the country must make mitigation and adaptation pledges consistent with the global goal of preventing catastrophic effects of global warming.
There is still much to be done for Mexico to reach its climate commitments, and tools like the one presented in this post can foster its achievement. Tracking Mexico’s climate action performance, it’s crucial to evaluate and generate strategies to mitigate the impact of Climate Change.
This Post was submitted by Climate Scorecard Mexico Country Manager Pablo David Necoechea Porras