April 9 (Bloomberg) -- Mexico has talked with Petroleos Mexicanos, the Federal Electric Commission and cement makers about including them in a domestic carbon market to help the country meet its goal to cut global-warming gases.

Mexico, which last year set a target of cutting its carbon- dioxide output in half from 2000 levels by 2050, wants to bring in a system of capping emissions by companies “as soon as possible,” said Rodolfo Godinez Rosales, director of environmental issues at the country’s foreign ministry.

“We want companies to see climate change as a growth opportunity and a way to improve competitiveness,” Godinez Rosales said in an interview in Bonn, Germany, where he was attending United Nations climate treaty negotiations. “Cap-and- trade is in its design phase at the moment.”

Mexico’s move to bring in a market that requires companies to buy permits to pollute from each other to meet set targets is part of growing efforts by developing countries to fight climate change. South Korea has carbon-trading proposals, South Africa has outlined plans to maximize and then reduce its emissions, and China has domestic targets to improve energy efficiency.

“It’s crucial that countries like Mexico are starting to show they’re serious when it comes to putting actions on the table,” Jake Schmidt, international climate policy director at the New York-based Natural Resources Defense Council, said in an interview in Bonn. “The more they can show they’re serious, the easier it is to overcome this ‘you move first’ dynamic.”

UN Climate Talks

The UN is guiding talks involving 192 countries to hammer out a global-warming treaty by December. Ten days of talks ended yesterday in Bonn with developing nations complaining about the slow progress made by wealthier countries in committing to cut greenhouse gases and agreeing to finance clean-energy projects.

Mexico has sought advice from European countries, where emissions trading also takes place, “to learn their experiences so that we can accelerate our own transition to a low-carbon economy,” Godinez Rosales said. Mexico will seek to link its eventual carbon market with those of other nations, he said.

“In a very general way we’ve talked about having a North American cap-and-trade system with the U.S. and Canada,” the official said on April 7. “Once we have a market that’s more or less mature, we could link it to others.”

Under a cap-and-trade system, companies are set limits on greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming. If they overshoot those targets, they must buy permits from businesses that have emissions surpluses.

Mexican officials have also talked with the metals, chemicals and textiles industries about capping their emissions. Godinez Rosales said. He declined to name companies beyond Pemex, the state-owned oil company, and the Comision Federal de Electricidad, or CFE, the largest publicly-owned power company.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: April 9, 2009 06:10 EDT