NAMA Support Project for New Housing

Programme description

Title: NAMA Facility: Implementation of the New Housing NAMA in Mexico
Commissioned by: Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU); Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) of the United Kingdom
Country: Mexico
Partner organisations: Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT); Secretariat of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development (SEDATU), National Housing Comission (CONAVI)
Overall term: TC Component: 2013 to 2017

Context

Residential buildings are responsible for approximately 17 per cent of total energy consumption in Mexico. Based on population growth of around 1.7 million per year and the rising expectations Mexicans have of housing quality, it is estimated that some 600,000 new residential units will have to be built every year to meet demand in the coming years. If no action is taken to increase energy efficiency, these additional units alone would emit around 25 million tonnes of CO₂ annually by 2020.

To counteract this trend, the world’s first NAMA (National Appropriate Mitigation Action) was developed in this sector as a voluntary climate mitigation action by the Mexican National Housing Commission (CONAVI) in 2012. The Mexican New Housing NAMA takes a holistic view of buildings (‘whole house approach’). The focus is not on applying individual energy efficiency measures or using renewable energy in residential buildings, but on a building’s overall energy performance. This is a ‘supported NAMA’, which means that it aims to acquire international climate financing for its implementation. Today the Mexican New Housing NAMA is one of the most advanced NAMAs in the world in terms of technical design and institutional integration.

The New Housing NAMA receives assistance from the NAMA Facility. The NAMA Facility was formed in 2012 by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) together with the British Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) to support developing and emerging countries in tackling the challenges of climate change and implementing NAMAs.

Objective

The Mexican New Housing NAMA is implemented. Cost and energy-efficient building concepts are promoted in housing construction.

Approach

The NAMA Facility combines technical assistance to CONAVI with financial incentives in cooperation with the Mexican social housing development bank Sociedad Hipotecaria Federal (SHF) to pave the way from initial NAMA development towards broad sector-wide implementation of sustainable housing construction. In the process, the following results are to be achieved:

• improvement of the capacities of federal, state and local authorities on energy efficient and sustainable housing construction, as well as introduction of building codes, regulations and legislative frameworks

• support for the development of a local market for environmentally friendly technologies

• improvement and dissemination of existing promotion and incentive instruments in Mexico with more ambitious energy efficiency standards at federal and state level

• support for the application of more ambitious energy efficiency standards through the provision of investment grants to subsidise the higher costs entailed in eco-technologies and environmentally friendly construction methods.

To this end, GIZ is supporting the transformation process of the Mexican housing construction sector on three levels.

1. Political framework and support mechanisms:

• strengthening the NAMA as a political promotion concept

• harmonising the support mechanisms, efficiency and selection criteria for new sustainable housing in Mexico

• establishing monitoring, reporting and verification systems.

2. Supply side for energy-efficient buildings:

• capacity building of small and medium-sized enterprises in the housing construction sector

• technology transfer and development of environmentally friendly construction materials and energy-efficient technologies in Mexico

• integrated application of the New Housing NAMA.

3. Demand side for energy-efficient buildings:

• awareness raising and information campaigns for end consumers and local authorities.