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Canada, Mexico and the United States cooperating to protect North America's shared environment.

ECO REGION
Secretariat Bulletin of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation

Summer / Fall 1996 Number 4
In This Issue

North American Cooperation on Climate Change

CEC workshop addresses greenhouse emissions

CEC supports innovative regional pilot projects to reduce emissions

As part of international efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) held its first North American Workshop on Joint Implementation in Mexico City. The goal of the workshop was to introduce project opportunities in Mexico to public- and private-sector leaders from nacec.across North America.

Such projects - referred to by the umbrella term "joint implementation" (JI) - seek to counterbalance emissions generated in one country by reducing greenhouse gas emissions in another. Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC), many signatory countries have committed themselves to emission reductions and are considering using pilot-phase JI projects, among other methods, to achieve those reductions.

During the April 17 workshop, climate change experts from nacec.Mexico, Canada and the United States discussed potential emission-reduction projects, investment and financing opportunities, as well as various national JI strategies under development in each country.

Workshop participants also discussed four potential JI projects, for which the CEC has provided financing for feasibility studies. All four projects would take place in Mexico.

The projects deal with the two main elements of JI: using existing or new forests essentially to absorb greenhouse gas emissions produced in North America and promoting the use of renewable energy in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by generating electricity without burning fossil fuels.

The projects under study are:

two projects in Oaxaca and Chiapas intended to protect existing forests and reforest degraded land;

a collaborative project between Mexico's Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) and the Arizona Public Service Company to provide solar- and wind-powered electricity to a village in Baja California; and

a project, also involving the CFE in cooperation with Mexico's Institute for Electrical Research (IIE), to create a large-scale wind energy plant in Oaxaca.

The JI workshop is key to the CEC's North American Cooperation on Climate Change program (Project 96.03.02). The 1996 annual program calls for additional efforts to promote private-sector and government initiatives aimed at controlling greenhouse gas emissions through regional cooperation.

The CEC also co-sponsored a two-day roundtable in Mexico City on climate change and JI. There, North American experts from nacec.government, the private sector and academia discussed possible next steps for the CEC and other participants in promoting regional cooperation. TransAlta Corporation of Edmonton (Alberta), Enron Corp. of Houston (Texas) and Niagara Mohawk Corporation of Syracuse (New York) co-sponsored the roundtable.

Proceedings from nacec.the workshop and the roundtable are available from nacec.the CEC.