An Agenda of Collaboration with Mexico City

Mexico Energy Initiative Team Lead Michael McNeil and Program Manager Alberto Diaz recently held a meeting in Mexico City with partners in city government and the non-governmental sector to advance collaboration projects on energy-efficiency.

The meeting was organized by the Mexico City Secretariat of Economic Development (SEDECO) and included representatives from Secretariat of Environment (SEDEMA); the National Commission for the Efficient Use of Energy (CONUEE); Mexico’s Climate Initiative (ICM); World Resources Institute (WRI); and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

Dr. Alberto Valdes Palacios, Director General of Development and Energy Sustainability at SEDECO, presided the meeting and emphasized the importance of coordination between federal and city authorities in the development of energy efficiency strategies.
The agenda included discussion of two projects where MEI is directly involved:
a) a proposal to renew efforts for the implementation of mandatory energy-efficiency building codes in Mexico City
b) a proposal to create a Virtual Data Lab as part of the Vallejo Innovation Center (iVallejo) to process, store and analyze energy end use data
In both cases, the discussion generated useful recommendations to move forward and expand engagement with relevant Mexico City government agencies.

The meeting at SEDECO is part of the follow up to the visit to Berkeley Lab last November by the Mexico City Chief of Government, Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum, where it was agreed to develop a partnership to address Mexico City’s sustainability challenges.

Partnering on Energy Efficiency

SEDEMA recently released a presentation on the Energy Sustainability Strategy (Solar City) for 2019-2024, which includes Berkeley Lab as one of the international partners. Berkeley Lab, along with the Comisión Nacional para el Uso Eficiente de la Energía (CONUEE) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), will work in the area of energy efficiency, focusing on retrofits of public buildings and energy efficiency regulations.

MEI appreciates the distinction of being identified by the Mexico City government as a partner in its energy sustainability efforts and looks forward to the opportunity to support the goals outlined in the 2019-2024 Plan.