MÉRIDA, Yucatan, March 13, 2023.- Mayor Renán Barrera informed that the Yucatan capital was selected for the Zero Emissions Cities Alliance project, for which financing will be obtained for five years for 21 million dollars, with the aim of reducing the municipality’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The municipal president celebrated the fact that Mérida has been selected by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) along with Hermosillo, Sonora; Guadalajara, Jalisco; Monterrey, Nuevo León and Mexico City, as the five metropolises that will receive financing to combat climate change.
He added that this alliance will allow the city to transform itself through projects over the next few years in areas such as energy efficiency in buildings, transportation, electric mobility, water treatment and reduction of short-lived climate pollutants such as methane and carbon, as well as 35 other areas that will be analyzed.
“Today and tomorrow they will analyze which are the points that they intend to work on, from greater to lesser impact, define strategic lines of action and work on the project. There are at least 35 items that will be analyzed, but we want to reach an agreement so that we work on four or five main points,” commented Barrera Concha.
Antonio Mediavilla Sahagún, general director of the USAID Alliance for Zero Emissions Cities, explained that the purpose of the project is to help municipal governments reduce their greenhouse gas emissions through the aforementioned areas, so that Mexico can be on the road to zero emissions by 2030.
In this context, he indicated that the project’s goals include increasing the energy efficiency of air conditioning equipment in public buildings by 50 percent, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent, and reducing black carbon by 15 percent, among other goals that will be set.
He added that the Mérida City Council will be offered technical assistance, support in pilot programs, studies to identify challenges, prioritization and financing of projects and actions, as well as the creation of knowledge platforms and training workshops to achieve the goals set in the medium term.
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