Commercial and informal atmospheric emissions in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area : scenario analysis and policy proposals

Abstract

The commercial and informal sectors contribute with significant amounts of emissions to the atmospheric pollution problem of the Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA). It is more the case for some pollutants than for others, but, in any case, policies tackling the emissions of these sectors have been very few, and of very limited effect. Even the measurement of the emissions is believed to be underestimated, especially for the informal sector, which is mostly unaccounted for in the recent emissions inventories developed in the MCMA. This thesis intends to improve the estimation of commercial and informal emissions in MCMA, through a qualitative assessment of the range of emission sources in these sectors, and an emissions model based on the integrated scenario analysis methodology implemented in the Mexico City Program at MIT. The ultimate goal of this research is to propose and evaluate new policies to reduce commercial emissions, both formal and informal, in MCMA.