On Monday 10th October, Plan Vivo signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) and the National Institute for Ecology of Climate Change (INECC) from Mexico. The General Directorate for Climate Change Policies, the counterpart signing the agreement, is in charge of developing the carbon markets in Mexico, both compliance markets and now also overlooking the voluntary carbon market (VCM) in the country. 

The general goal of the MoU is to share information and experiences in working groups and workshops to develop a VCM under the principles of social justice, focusing specially on the rights of indigenous communities. 

The government claims to have identified poor practices in the VCM, specifically in the way some market participants had been entering into disadvantageous contracts with communities in the past. The aim is to turn this around. We believe that the Plan Vivo model with its holistic, participatory, community-focused approach, and especially through our social and environmental safeguards, and our benefit-sharing mechanism, has important solutions to offer in this space. 

On a similar context, the Mexican emissions trading system (ETS) will be allowing the use of offsets as part of its flexibility mechanisms, although the standards or protocols to be accepted in it are yet to be defined. 

In Plan Vivo we see this as a great opportunity to increase our presence in the country, and to contribute to promote high-quality, socially-just carbon credits that can be used both in the VCM and the Mexican ETS. This will not only help the country to reach its commitments under the Paris Agreement, but it also will help in delivering social and economic benefits to communities and smallholders responsible for the emissions reductions. 

   

Read the full press release from INECC (Spanish):

https://www.gob.mx/inecc/prensa/firman-inecc-y-estandarizadoras-memorandum-que-construya-justicia-ambiental-y-climatica