Coahuila holds the First Regular Meeting of its Interagency Commission on Climate Change

The State Climate Action Plan (SCAP) for the State of Coahuila is moving forward, as reflected during the first regular meeting of its Interagency Commission on Climate Change (ICCC), held on February 26 in Saltillo. With this action, the government of Coahuila decisively enters the second phase of its SCAP thanks to the support provided by the BECC, which dates back to 2011, when the state completed the first phase of its SCAP to identify climate change mitigation policies under an inclusive workgroup-based process.

This event was held at the Auditorium of the "Carlos Monsivais" Library in the capital of the state of Coahuila, in the peaceful atmosphere of a building that dates back to the Porfirio Diaz era, in the early 20th century. Attendees to the meeting included the heads or representatives of the ten Coahuila state agencies that make up the ICCC and over fifty guests from the academia, the private sector, environmental organizations and chambers that represent the state's different productive sectors.

The meeting was chaired by Coahuila's Secretary of the Environment, Eglantina Canales, who noted that "the issue of climate change is of such significance that all institutions of the Coahuila state government should be involved in its care, under a cross-sectorial approach and with the conviction that we all have something to contribute."

BECC's General Manager, Maria Elena Giner, talked to the audience about the importance of the role and the objectives of this binational organization for the border, as well as its results, but primarily about the components that will be developed throughout the second phase of the SCAP.

The BECC official said that this phase will allow for the quantification of public policies to mitigate the impacts of climate change. This will require the use of an econometric model called REMI. This analysis, she said, will focus on quantitatively establishing the impacts in terms of job creation, while identifying the need for investments in strategic environmental infrastructure projects and primarily, identifying those population groups that may be negatively or positively impacted, based on an "environmental justice" perspective.

As background information, it must be noted that the state government published on November 9, 2012 in its official newspaper the decree creating the ICCC for the State of Coahuila, and during this first regular meeting, a statement was issued to announce the institutionalpartnership between the BECC, USAID and the state government for the development of the second phase of the SCAP.

The funding to be used for the development of this phase is $270,000 dollars --$137,500 by each partner-- which will be contributed equally by the BECC and USAID. It should be noted that BECC funds are provided by the U.S. Department of State and Mexico's Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources. USAID funding for these tasks will be channeled through the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Mexico chapter. It was reported that this second phase of the SCAP is expected to take between 11 and 12 months to be completed.

Maria Elena Giner's remarks were complemented with comments made by Mario Vazquez and Tomas Balarezo. Both BECC officials stated that this event is a reflection of the upcoming good news for the state of Coahuila.