MEXICO Law and Practice Contributed by: Federico Ruanova Guinea and Isabella Guzman, Baker McKenzie
1. Regulatory Framework and Law 1.1 Environmental Protection Policies, Principles and Laws The Constitution of Mexico (Article 4) states that per- sons have a right to a healthy environment for their development and well-being. The government has both the responsibility and the mandate to ensure that this right is afforded and protected. Environmental liability is defined in Mexico as “adverse and measurable loss, change, deterioration, detri- ment or modification of habitats, ecosystems, natural resources and elements, their chemical, physical or biological conditions, of their interaction as well as of the environmental services they provide”. Mexico has enacted many federal and laws, as well as regulations and technical standards. The most impor- tant ones are the following: • the General Ecological Balance and Environmental Protection Law (the “General Law”); • the General Climate Change Law (the “Climate Change Law”); • the National Water Law; • the Federal Environmental Liability Law (the “Liabil- ity Law”); • the Waste Prevention and Integral Management Law (the “Waste Law”); • the General Wildlife Law; and • the General Sustainable Forestry Development Law. The country’s 32 states have enacted their own envi- ronmental laws and regulations. These tend to cover areas that are not subject to the federal government’s oversight. Mexico has also developed and enacted regulations, directives and more than 100 technical standards cov- ering a wide range areas and topics, such as those that set maximum allowable limits for pollutants in waste water and the emission of pollutants into the atmosphere, standards that establish remediation action limits, and also those that set criteria to deter- mine whether waste is legally hazardous.
2. Enforcement Authorities and Mechanisms 2.1 Regulatory Authorities
The federal cabinet ministry overseeing environmen- tal matters is the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT). SEMARNAT has three decentralised agencies: • the Industrial Safety and Environmental Agency for the Hydrocarbons Sector (ASEA); • the National Water Commission (CONAGUA); and • the Federal Bureau of Environmental Protection (PROFEPA). Mexico’s states have their own environmental agen- cies that regulate all matters that do not fall under the control or oversight of federal environmental authori- ties, such as waste water discharge into urban sew- erage systems, stationary air emission sources under state control, non-hazardous waste-handling and dis- posal, as well as land use and zoning matters. 2.2 Co-Operation Regulatory (federal and state) authorities generally enter into co-ordination agreements in order to co- operate on a host of environmental matters, such as joint enforcement of environmental laws. It is com- mon for SEMARNAT to co-operate with the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare (STPS) to design joint policies in the area of environment and occupational safety and health compliance. In the area of international co-operation, Mexico is a party to a number of treaties and conventions. The most important ones are the following: • the Paris Climate Agreement; • the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation with the United States and Canada, the Agreement on Cooperation for the Protection and Improvement of the Environment in the Border Area (also known as the “La Paz Agreement”); • the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer; • the Marpol Protocols to Prevent Pollution from Ships; and
304 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook