Mexico open to carbon credits at climate talks

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JIUTEPEC, Mexico — Mexico said Tuesday it is open to including a link to the existing carbon-credit market in the framework of a new global “green” financing fund that is gaining traction as a response to climate change.

The proposal for the new $10 billion fund could partly displace the largely private carbon-credit market, but officials suggested the credits could be used within the intergovernmental fund.

“Mexico’s proposals for the ‘Green Fund’ could be compatible with a link to the carbon credits market, which would allow a significant increase in the amount of funds available,” said Adrian Fernandez, the head of Mexico’s National Ecology Institute.

Under the proposal being pushed at the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate - a gathering of 19 nations and the European Union which together represent 80 percent of global emissions - governments would contribute to the fund based on their relative wealth. Countries could withdraw from the fund to finance clean energy and remediation programs.

Carbon credits, meanwhile, are largely traded by private companies looking for a way to offset pollution.

Activists say that while Mexico’s proposal lacks compliance mechanisms to ensure that wealthy countries contribute, it is preferable to the current, largely private credits market.