As part of the development stages of the MCCP of Puerto Vallarta, the public consultation of the document was successfully conducted in virtual and face-to-face formats in order to gather the comments and contributions from citizens, civil society, experts, private sector, as well as educational institutions.

To ensure proper adoption of public policies, public consultation processes are vital to ensure  the integration of diverse visions, opinions and proposals of citizens, as well as all interested parties in the matter in a transparent manner.

As part of the development stages of the Municipal Climate Change Program (MCCP) of Puerto Vallarta, once being completed the first draft of the document, it was taken out for public consultation between September 1st and 30th, 2019 in virtual and face-to-face formats, in order to collect comments and contributions from all society sectors in a participatory, equitable, differentiated, co-responsible and effective manner.

The MCCP of Puerto Vallarta takes as reference the “Guide for the Development and Update of Municipal Climate Change Plans for the State of Jalisco”, which seeks to align municipal climate policy with state and federal policy.

The Interinstitutional Commission for Climate Change, through the Ministry of Environment and Territorial Development (SEMADET) of the State of Jalisco and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH (German Cooperation for Sustainable Development), through the “Vertically Integrated Climate Policies Program (VICLIM)” and “Ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change in cooperation with the private sector in Mexico (ADAPTUR)” have been supporting  the municipal government of Puerto Vallarta since December 2018 to jointly prepare their MCCP.

Below is a recount of the prepared articles and results about the activities that have taken place since the announcement of the beginning of the process up until the public consultation of the program:

• Beginning of the development of the Municipal Climate Change Plan (MCCP) in Puerto Vallarta and development of a vulnerability self-diagnosis
• Adhesion of the MCCP of Puerto Vallarta to the Global Pact of Mayors for Climate and Energy
• Webinar Puerto Vallarta Municipal Climate Change Program Blog: a space for exchanging experiences
• Workshop on identification of mitigation and adaptation measures for the MCCP of Puerto Vallarta
• Workshop for the pre-prioritization of mitigation and adaptation measures
• Webinar on development advances of the MCCP of Puerto Vallarta

As a result of this participatory process consisting of workshops with diverse actors, bilateral meetings with municipal officials and the accompaniment of two expert consultancies in the field, a total of 66 measures have been proposed to integrate the MCCP. These measures are jointly articulated  and are aligned under six strategic axes. In addition, they consist of 21 measures that enable the conditions (legal, economic, governance, etc.) to implement 33 mitigation actions, which 12 are adaptation to climate change actions.

The public consultation stage of the MCCP consisted of three main measures:

Physical Document. The MCCP was available for consultation during this period at the offices of the Subdirectorate of Environment, address: Republic of Ecuador 650-A, col. Coapinole, Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco.

Virtual consultation. The virtual consultation process was open between September 1st and 30th and consisted of an online survey accompanied by MCCP informational material disseminated on both the channels of the SEMADET  and Puerto Vallarta Municipal Government. In this exercise, 310 surveys and 3 free writings were collected that will be considered for the final version of the program.

Face-to-face forums. In order to have a more participatory process, three exchange forums were held in the format of working tables where the MCCP was presented and a physical and online survey was requested. These forums were strategically held in three different spaces in order to cover a greater number of the population, including the rural sector and young people:

• The 1st Forum was held on September 3 in the Municipal Administrative Unit (MAU) with a participation of 70 people.
• The 2nd Forum was held on September 4 at the Ixtapa ejido, with a participation of 25 attendees.
• The 3rd Forum held on September 24, at the University Center of the Coast, University of Guadalajara, with 113 participants from the university community.

By this means, the outstanding participation and commitment of all those who participated in this process is appreciated. It will allow to have a program that is better suited by the citizens and can respond with greater certainty to the current and future conditions of the municipality in the face of climate change.

Between October and November, the valuable comments of the public consultation will be integrated, and the final product will be presented to the Municipal Government for adoption and subsequent publication in the Official State Gazette.