The different agendas adopted at the international level and led by the United Nations (UN) seek to address a variety of situations facing humanity today. Understanding these agendas is fundamental to solving the problems from a more comprehensive and systematic approach.
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is the guiding axis of international development policy and one of the most important of the modern era. Through its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets, the 2030 Agenda seeks to eradicate poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and tackle climate change. At the UN headquarters in September 2015, Mexico committed itself to implementing the 2030 Agenda.
Paris Agreement
The most important international policy instrument for combating climate change to date, the Paris Agreement seeks to decarbonize the economies of the signatory countries during the second half of the century and to increase their resilience to the consequences of climate change. Mexico ratified the agreement on September 14, 2016 before the Mexican Senate. The agreement’s commitments include mitigation and adaptation components.
Mitigation:
- Unconditional target: reduce emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) by 22% and black carbon (short-lived climate pollutant) by 51% by 2030 through its own resources.
- Conditional target: reduce emissions of GHG by 36% and black carbon by 70% by 2030, provided that an international framework is established so that Mexico can obtain additional resources and access the appropriate technology transfer mechanisms.
Adaptation:
- Social-sector adaptation—for example, strengthen the adaptive capacity of at least 50% of municipalities classified as “most vulnerable.”
- Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA)—for example, reach a 0% deforestation rate by 2030.
- Infrastructure adaptation—for example, guarantee and monitor industrial and urban waste water treatment in human settlements with more than 500,000 inhabitants.
Kigali Amendment
The Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol seeks to continue phasing down the production, consumption, import and export of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), greenhouse gases that contribute strongly to global warming and climate change. On June 22, 2018, Mexico ratified the Amendment through its publication in the Official Gazette of the Federation.
Linking Global Agendas
On October 3, 2018, Yuriana González Ulloa, representing the Proklima Program of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, discussed the connection between the 2030 Agenda, the Paris Agreement and the Kigali Amendment at the AHR Expo-México® industrial exhibition on heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration (HVACR).
González Ulloa highlighted the close relationship between the three agendas and explained how fulfilling the actions of the refrigeration and air conditioning secto
r contribute to achieving the goals of the three agendas:
Example of the links between the international agendas