Plan de Acción para la Implementación Efectiva de Proyectos de Energía Renovable y los Aspectos Sociales Vinculados

USAID worked with a range of stakeholders to recommend this plan to address the legal and governance gaps in the management of social issues arising from the development, construction, and operation of energy projects in Mexico.

In Mexico and other countries in the region, the significant increase in renewable energy (RE) capacity has put pressure on local communities, largely indigenous. This has in many instances slowed down, and sometimes prevented, the development of RE projects. This was the case for some projects of the 1 GW of renewable energy awarded in the first round of the auctions in early 2016 in the Yucatan region.

In 2016 and 2017, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Mexico Low Emissions Development-II Program (MLED-II), supported relevant energy sector entities in Mexico to address legal and governance gaps for the effective management of social issues that arise during the development, construction and operation of energy projects.

The primary tool of this support was an action plan, delivered in November 2017, which consolidated, coordinated, and prioritized recommendations of key individuals in the public, private, and civil society sectors for activities regarding social aspects. This action plan also included inputs from three meetings organized by USAID in 2016 and 2017.

The action plan was developed considering a wide range of interrelated data from preliminary studies, social impact evaluations (i.e., Evaluación de Impacto Social, or EvIS), prior consultations, social investment, and project shared benefits initiatives. The connectivity of these are critical; for example, preliminary studies provide inputs for EvIS and consultations. these, in turn, shape the project’s shared benefits and social investment initiatives. Their cause-and-effect relationships helped to reinforce the need for harmonized methods and processes for the various government agencies involved.

In June 1, 2018 the entity in charge of energy policy in Mexico, SENER (Secretaría de Energía), published Administrative Provisions (Disposiciones Administrativas) for the social impact evaluation (Evaluación de Impacto Social, EvIS) of energy projects developed in Mexico.1 The Administrative Provisions established the general procedures, methodologies and guidelines for the preparation and presentation of EvIS, and incorporated many recommendations identified in this action plan.

The document above provides an English translation of the plan’s Executive Summary.

The full plan is comprised of three volumes written in Spanish:

Volume 1: Action Plan for Effective Implementation of Renewable Energy Projects and Associated Social Aspects

  1. Introduction
  2. Diagnosis of the Current Situation: Development of Renewable Energy Projects and Its Social Aspects
  3. Action Plan to Orchestrate Renewable Energy Projects with Full Respect for Human Rights and Sustainable Development
  4. Other Aspects and Recommendations
  5. Conclusions

Volume 2: Memory of the Three Meetings on Social Aspects Derived from the Implementation of Renewable Energy Projects in Mexico

  1. Results of Meetings on Social Impact with the Government, Private, and Social Sectors
  2. Identification of Recommendations to Guarantee Governance and Respect for Human Rights

Volume 3: Annexes

  1. Summary of the main results of the literature review of Mexico
  2. Summary of relevant legal framework for the effective implementation of renewable energy projects and related social aspects.
  3. Attributes and functions of key institutions
  4. Summary of comments to first draft administrative provisions in COFEMER
  5. Exhortation of the Oaxaca Congress to the Chamber of Deputies
  6. Summary of international experiences in the development of renewable energy projects
  7. Isolated Theses of the Supreme Court of National Justice on Consultations to Indigenous Communities

Scaling Up Renewable Energy (SURE)

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GLOBAL, 2017–ONGOING – Through the SURE program, USAID helps partner countries power economies, meet international climate commitments, and strengthen energy security via private investment in, and competitive procurement of, clean electricity.

Institutional Framework for Auctions in Mexico

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As part of its 2013 constitutional reform, Mexico implemented a major restructuring of its power sector which, with assistance from USAID, resulted in some of the world’s most competitive renewable energy prices.