Climate protection in the Mexican urban policy (CiClim)

Already today, more than 78 percent of Mexico's population lives in cities and Mexico's urbanization will continue to increase. The consequences of climate change are particularly visible there. At the same time, cities generate a large proportion of greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, cities are crucial in the fight against climate change and in achieving Mexico’s climate and sustainability targets. The project advised the Mexican Ministries of Urban Development and of Environment as well as selected pilot cities to implement a sustainable urban development, which through climate adaptation and mitigation measures contributed to combating climate change in Mexican cities and to Mexico's green recovery. It focused thematically on green infrastructure, sustainable urban planning, urban mobility and access to urban climate finance. The experiences of the project were disseminated through local, regional and international networks.

Project data

Countries: Mexico
IKI funding: 5,800,000.00 €
Duration: 08/2017 till 12/2022
Status: completed
Implementing organisation: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
Political Partner: Ministry for Agricultural, Territorial and Urban Development (SEDATU) - Mexico

Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) - Mexico
Online: https://www.giz.de/en/worldwide/67903.html

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State of implementation/results

Project completed.
Activities are currently rolled out in the following pilot cities:
- León in the federal state of Guanajuato
- San Nicolas de los Garza, part of the Monterrey metropolitan area
- Torreón in the federal state of Coahuila
- Tuxla Gutierrez, capital of the federal state of Chiapas in southern Mexico --as well as smaller measures in other cities (Puebla, Tulum, LosCabos, etc.).
The cooperation with the project cities Tlaquepaque, Morelia, Hermosillio and Merida was successfully completed at the beginning of 2021 and experiences and good practices have been published (ciudadesytransporte.mx/…).
Development of three guidelines with the Urban Development Ministry SEDATU: (1) production of a municipal plant catalog, (2) production of sustainable mobility studies, and (3) a guide for the creation of inclusive cycle lanes. The guidelines will be used internally by the SEDATU to implement infrastructure and mobility projects under the infrastructure improvement programme (PMU). The documents will be available to the public starting in October 2022.
The project has already been supporting the SEDATU since 2018 in the preparation of the official standard for public spaces in cities through working groups. To advance the implementation of the standard, a virtual course will be developed, which will be made available to municipalities to implement projects in public spaces.
Implementation of pilot projects on active mobility (walking and cycling) with the private company COMEX in four cities, namely Los Cabos and La Paz (Baja California Sur), Puebla (Puebla) and Tlalnepantla (Mexico). COMEX provided the necessary paints for street painting. Through the intervention, the population was sensitized on the issue of active mobility and a road safety diagnosis was carried out.
Preparation of the Municipal Plan for Active Mobility and Design of Sustainable Streets in Tulum (Quintana Roo) together with SEDATU.
July 2022: The Action Groups on Climate Change (Grupos de Acción Climática) organized a four-day virtual event to share experiences and dialogue between government representatives at the subnational level. The topics were: green infrastructure, circular economy, digitalization, and society and climate.
Establishment of an expert network for green infrastructure at the federal level. First virtual talks and a project competition were held. The three winning projects will be supervised by experts from the network. In Tuxtla Gutierrez, in the state of Chiapas, the first local network on the topic is also under construction.
Development of the Learning Platform for Environmental and Urban Monitoring (Monitoreo Ambiental y Urbano de Ciudades, MAUC) with the Mexican Association of Municipal Planning Institutes (AMIMP). Fifteen cities completed the training.
The project partners at the federal level (Ministry of Urban Development and Ministry of the Environment) have developed an urban environmental agenda (Agenda Urbano Ambiental, centrourbano.com/…) with the support of the project. It contains measures to reshape urban environmental and climate policy and combines the challenges of sustainable urban development with climate and environmental protection.
In December 2020, the project, together with ICLEI, published a publication on the "Role of Cities for Green Recovery in Mexico" (www.giz.de/…). – Through the advice to companies on green recovery approaches, the policy of the project city Hermosillo with regard to the topic of circular economy was strengthened (www.implanhermosillo.gob.mx/…). Hermosillo was the first Mexican city to establish a circular economy center that promotes business start-ups in this sector.
With the support of the project, the city of León has designated a new municipal nature reserve covering an area of 5,850 hectares. The city also launched a bicycle school with a gender focus (www.facebook.com/…).
As part of the project, digital applications have been developed to improve the urban transport and mobility sector such as a climate calculator (calculadora.infraestructuraverdeyciudades.com) to enable municipalities to calculate emissions saved by cycling. This calculator was already used in the development of an air quality strategy of the city of Torreón. The digital tool MOVIDATA (movidata.org) supports cities to develop measures to improve transport infrastructure such as stops, sidewalks and roads.
In coordination with local governments, civil society and the private sector, 1,600 m2 of roads have been redesigned, improving road safety for more than 5,000 people in the cities of León and Tuxtla Gutiérrez. For that, the project also cooperated with the Mexican paint manufacturer COMEX. As part of the “Go, León” initiative (ciudadesytransporte.mx/…) the driving speeds of vehicles have been reduced, green spaces have been created and social inclusion has increased.