COP26 Briefing: Social performance of renewables for Mexico

In an explo­rative study con­duct­ed by IASS Pots­dam in the con­text of the COBENEFITS project in 2020, a Social Per­for­mance Index (SPI) was devel­oped with stake­hold­ers of com­mu­ni­ties who had been pos­i­tive­ly or neg­a­tive­ly impact­ed by renew­able ener­gy projects. The study cen­tred on two questions:

• How does a renew­able ener­gy project per­form social­ly, i.e., how does it con­tribute to the well-being of indi­vid­u­als and local host communities?
• How can the social per­for­mance of renew­able ener­gy projects to improve and sus­tain the well-being of indi­vid­u­als and local host com­mu­ni­ties be ensured and enhanced?

This case study builds on insights from con­sul­ta­tive inter­views with renew­able ener­gy experts, activists, com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers, rep­re­sen­ta­tives of non-gov­ern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions, and pub­lic offi­cials from the envi­ron­men­tal sec­tor in Mex­i­co. The inter­views shed light on diverg­ing per­spec­tives and expe­ri­ences with renew­able ener­gy projects in Mex­i­co regard­ing their social per­for­mance for local com­mu­ni­ties. The inter­views explored the dif­fer­ent notions and under­stand­ings of what social per­for­mance means for com­mu­ni­ties in Mex­i­co as well as the per­ceived sta­tus quo and the prospects of renew­able ener­gy projects per­form­ing for society.

COP26 Brief­ing Mex­i­co [PDF]

 

Octo­ber 2021

This COP26 brief­ing has been pre­pared based on the Dis­cus­sion Paper “Social Per­for­mance Index (SPI)” in the con­text of the COBENEFITS project, led by IASS Pots­dam, and in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the CONECC Mex­i­co project, led by GIZ. Both projects are fund­ed by the Inter­na­tion­al Cli­mate Ini­tia­tive (IKI) of the Ger­man government.