Historically, in Latin America and the Caribbean and in the world, a variety of measures, policies, programs or practices have been implemented that have been created to achieve economic and productive objectives, but that did not consider in their design the affectation or negative or positive impact in the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity.
Current diagnoses are often estimated globally (OECD, 2020; Deutz et al., 2020; Dempsey, Martin, and Sumaila, 2020). The availability of data on the magnitude of subsidies varies greatly according to sectors and countries, but we have approximations that indicate their relevance. Potentially harmful subsidies – even based on incomplete estimates – are estimated to be between 1 – 2% of world GDP. In these reports, most of the incentives or subsidies that are harmful to biodiversity come from the public sector, that is, from the governments themselves, which simultaneously and uncoordinatedly invest much smaller amounts to counteract the environmental damage caused. Governments transfer value to private companies (or also to state companies) in many ways, for example, through direct spending, fiscal spending, user fees, conditions of access to resources, credit, risk insurance, induced transfers, regulations about externalities (Koplow and Steeblick, 2022).
In the recent study by D. Koplow and R. Steenblik, Protecting Nature by Reforming Environmentally Harmful Subsidies: The Role of Business (2022), it has been estimated that in order of scale and impact and the benefits of potential reform of such perverse incentives, the three most prevalent are fossil fuels, agriculture, and water. It should be noted that although there is a large overlap between sectors, in general, most reviews of government subsidies have had an industry-specific focus rather than several natural resource sectors at once, so there is a need to better understand the interaction between sectors.
The current technical assistance requested by Mexico (SEMARNAT) from ECLAC is aimed at developing a diagnosis of public policy instruments, both in the water sector and in other interrelated sectors (for example, agriculture, mining, manufacturing), with potential detrimental effects or positive for biodiversity. Today Mexico has very high access and sanitation coverage at the basic service level. However, there is a huge challenge to manage water and sanitation in a safe and sustainable way through an integrated management of water resources.
Participating in the meeting were the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), César Rodriguez Ortega, General Director of the Environmental Planning, Evaluation and Statistics Division, Leticia Manzanera Herrera y Cairo, Miguel Ángel López Bracho, Fernando Joel Islas Sosa, Guadalupe Cintya Benítez, and Juan Carlos Vasquez Zepeda; from the National Forestry Commission (CONAFOR) attended by Jorge Fernández Medina, by the National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (CONABIO) attended by Patricia Koleff and Tania Urquiza; by the Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER) Noe Mejía; from the National Water Commission (CONAGUA) attended by Mónica López, Orlando Jaimes Martínez, Juan José Díaz Nigenda, Ivonne Garduño Escobedo, Luis Enrique Calderón Sánchez, Araceli López Calderón, Karen Itzel Tolentino García, Nazario Álvarez González. On behalf of ECLAC, the following participated: Jeannette Sánchez, Silvia Saravia, Marcia Tamnutti, Vícor Alvarado, Jorge Vásquez, Juan Manuel Torres Rojo, Adriana Flores Díaz and Regina Gonzalez.
