Mexico

Promoting energy efficiency on both the supply and demand side is critical from the standpoint of energy security, energy access and climate change mitigation. Energy... Show More + Efficiency leads to a triple bottom line: economic and financial benefits (for countries, consumers, and utilities), climate benefits, and local pollution benefits. It also improves competitiveness and provides employment. Given the expected growth in demand, a sense of urgency is required. US$20 to 30 trillion of investments in energy infrastructure across the spectrum (generation, transmission and distribution) will be needed to meet the expected demand over the next 20 years, and it is wise to take action now, given that future costs will be much higher. A number of measures can be taken right now. Commercially-viable energy efficiency technologies are already available for efficient generation and efficient end use. The challenge is to deliver these technologies and realize the technical potential that does not get trapped in a business as usual context, due to market failures, and regulatory and other barriers. Energy efficiency is everybody's business, since every nation will gain from it. It is a win-win option, and the best and readymade one in the short-term when compared to other options. Show Less -

This document states that Mexico faces the challenge of Climate Change, the ambitious targets to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases as part of a national strategy... Show More + and in establishing a framework for the formulation of state plans of action. It points out that the Michoacan state government under the leadership of the Ministry of Urbanism and Environment has initiated the preparation of the Action Plan called for Master Plan of State Strategy Climate Change. In coordination with the World Bank, the State Government has initiated a series of workshops as part of a consultation process. In the workshop held in November 2009, it identified the need to conduct a Climate Risk Management workshop, which took place in October this year. This paper presents the main outcomes of the workshop, which include measures of adaptation to two issues of paramount importance for the State: the corn-fed agriculture and water. The overall objective of the consultancy is to prepare an initial draft as an input to the Michoacan State Action Plan against climate change by two pilot areas in order to initiate a planning process in priority sectors. Its achievements are: 1) the preparation of a workshop for the identification of adaptation measures concerning a set of scenarios and risks for the State of Michoacan, excluding mitigation strategies or actions. 2) The drafting of an enforceable document and a report as input for the Action Plan of the State of Michoacan against Climate Change (also called Environmental Sustainability Program for Climate Change) in selected pilot sectors, including the identification and prioritization of adaptation measures, as well as a program of actions for the short, medium and long term, with a more detailed description of the first phase (2011 -2012) and elements for the definition of terms of contract allowing the necessary studies to develop the second phase. Show Less -

This paper focuses on core aspects of the political economy of reform, drawing on case studies of three economies transitioning to stronger business environments (Hungary,... Show More + the Republic of Korea, and Mexico) and three countries with well-developed business environments (Australia, Italy, and the United Kingdom). The purpose is threefold: first, to identify so-called drivers of reform among successfully reforming countries; second, to explore how a reform strategy can make optimal use of the opportunities provided by the drivers of change; and third; to suggest how these lessons can be proactively used by other reformers to design and guide reforms. The case study findings suggest that, regardless of the content of reform, success is influenced by an evolving mix of seven drivers of change: i) globalization or competitiveness; ii) crisis; iii) political leadership; iv) unfolding reform synergies; v) technocrats; vi) changes in civil society, and vii) external pressure. The case studies suggest that reformers can influence the direction and pace of change by mobilizing and exploiting drivers of it. Rather than a cause-and-effect scenario in which a single driver-such as a crisis-creates and defines the success of a body of reforms, what happens is an unfolding series of events in which various drivers become more and less important in defining phases of the reform process. Show Less -

The focus of this study is competitiveness. The analysis considers several dimensions of competitiveness of Mexican producer's vis-a-vis their counterparts in the United... Show More + States, market structure in Mexico and the United States, the impacts of increased import competition on consumers, and most importantly policy options for the government to support producers in responding to increased competition and in taking full advantage of opportunities opened by North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The study analyzed the impact of partially reversing the policies agreed under NAFTA in these products (which is an option being proposed by some in Mexico), finding that this would on balance be quite costly to the Mexican economy. The notes also include estimates of location-specific production costs, aggregated into variable cost or "supply curves" for the nation as a whole, which can assist the government in identifying areas most at risk from competitive pressures from NAFTA or other sources. The final phase of implementation of NAFTA will affect each of the three product markets in a somewhat different way. For corn, the study found that the effects will be quite minimal, since the U.S. and Mexican markets have already become virtually fully integrated, as the government has not exercised its option to constrain imports over the course of the last 14 years, and in any case, the nation is self-sufficient in white corn for human consumption. In light of the current very high price of corn in the global markets, recent policy attention has focused more than in the past on consumer issues avoiding another 'tortilla crisis' but there is still a need to make production and marketing more efficient. Show Less -

Beans are one of the four agricultural commodities commonly known as 'sensitive products' in Mexico whose tariff phase-out period under NAFTA will end in 2008. The other... Show More + products are sugar, dairy, and corn. There is concern in many sectors of Mexican society about the short- and long-term effects that full integration of the North American market for these products will have on Mexican producers and consumers. Furthermore, full market integration comes at a time when world agricultural markets, especially those for sugar and grains, are experiencing the volatile effects of increased demand for biofuels. Because of the uncertainty in market trends caused by these circumstances, the Mexican government asked the World Bank to prepare policy notes on three of these products corn, sugar, and beans to assess the potential impact of the final phaseout of tariffs, identify potential winners and losers, and suggest policy options that could help Mexican producers and consumers take full advantage of market integration. This paper examines these matters in connection with the market for beans. Nearly 60 percent of all bean production in Mexico is from the neighboring states of Zacatecas (30.6 percent), Sinaloa (12.5 percent), Durango (11.5 percent), and Nayarit (5.0 percent). The largest producer outside this area is the southern state of Chiapas, which accounts for 6.4 percent of Mexican production. Irrigated production is concentrated in Sinaloa and Nayarit. Although a large majority of bean producers are subsistence farmers, this policy note focuses on commercial bean production because it accounts for a large majority of total output and is the sector where the impacts of market integration and the biofuels shock are most strongly felt. Show Less -

This report summarizes the results of the first test of the country savings assessment toolkit under development as part of CGAP's savings initiative. The purpose of... Show More + the toolkit is to help government agencies, donors, and others to identify the opportunities and constraints of increasing poor people's access to high-quality deposit services in various countries. The methodology examines client demand for small-balance deposit services, and the ability of the financial system to satisfy this demand at three levels: financial institutions (micro), supporting infrastructure (meso), and policy (macro). It concludes with suggestions for possible strategies to improve the quality and quantity of deposit services available to poor and low-income households. Show Less -

The restructuring and privatization of the U.K. electricity supply - was it worth it? by David M. Newbery and Michael G. Pollitt. A retrospective on the Mexican toll... Show More + road program (1989-94), by Jeff Ruster. The private sector in water and sanitation - how to get started, by Penelope J. Brook Cowen. Privatization and restructuring in Central and Eastern Europe, by Robert E. Anderson, Simeon Djankov, Gerhard Pohl, and Stijn Claessens. The drivers of the information revolution -- cost, computing power, and convergence, by James Bond. Telecommunications is dead, long live networking: the effect of the information revolution on the telecom industry, by James Bond. Telecommunicatons reform - how to succeed, by Bjorn Wellenius. Liberalizing telecommunications and the role of the World Trade Organization, by Carols A. Primo Braga. What the transformation of telecom markets means for regulation, by Peter Smith. The private sector and the internet, by Carols A. Primo Braga and Carsten Fink. Show Less -