Environment
Querétaro: an environmental fund open to companies, academia and civil society
Querétaro's environmental fund is not a trust but an instrument with annual rules, and any individual or organisation can submit a project. Who can apply, what it funds and how projects are scored.
Bajío Ventures · February 2026 · Bajío environmental funds, 3 of 5
Querétaro took another route. Its environmental fund is not a trust: it is an economic instrument run by the Sustainable Development Secretariat (SEDESU) under rules published every fiscal year. And unlike FOAM, any individual or organisation can submit a project.
Legal basis and funding
Article 32 of the Querétaro Environmental Code, published in December 2021, creates the Fund for Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development. Its purpose: conserve natural resources and support environmental and climate management.
The money comes from fines for breaching vehicle emissions-testing rules. Each year SEDESU asks the Finance Secretariat for the available ceiling and publishes an agreement with that year’s rules. Rules exist for 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025; the 2025 rules were issued in January.
The fund has five objectives: conserve natural heritage; reduce pollutants; use natural resources rationally; raise public awareness; and strengthen environmental data for decision-making.
Who can apply
The target population is individuals and legal entities from the public, private, social and academic sectors active in the state. The rules also provide for an intermediary body: a legal entity that runs the project and channels funds to beneficiaries. All 18 municipalities are covered.
What it funds
The 2022 rules list 25 categories. Among the most relevant:
- Monitoring and reducing pollutants and greenhouse gases, including renewable energy.
- Energy-efficient technology programmes.
- Prevention and integrated management of municipal and special-handling waste.
- Circular economy.
- Environmental studies that produce public-policy instruments.
- Aquifer recharge, restoration of ecosystems and water bodies, reforestation and payment for ecosystem services.
It does not pay salaries, travel, operating costs, utilities, vehicle maintenance or rent. Nor does it fund work or studies already completed, or items already receiving other public support.
How projects are assessed
The process is online, with set deadlines:
- Register the project on the state online permits platform, with a technical form and documents.
- One request for missing items: three working days to fix them.
- Technical opinion from the relevant SEDESU unit within 30 working days.
- Decision by the Evaluation Committee, made up of SEDESU heads; its decisions are final.
- Sign the execution agreement within 15 working days.
The technical opinion scores coverage (state 5, regional 4, municipal 3, local 2), each fund objective the project addresses, and project type. A study that informs public policy scores higher than an outreach one; an equipment project scores for each dimension —environmental, economic, social— it solves.
Beneficiaries file quarterly and final reports and keep records for seven years.
Municipal level
State law also lets municipalities create their own fund. The municipality of Querétaro provides for one in its environmental regulation, run through a trust, and also has FIQMA to conserve its natural capital.
Lessons from the model
Querétaro’s fund is the most accessible of the four states for the private sector and academia, with published scoring criteria. The flip side: because it depends on fines and an annual ceiling, its size can swing from year to year, and the committee is internal to the Secretariat.
Previous: Jalisco’s FEPAJ. Next: Aguascalientes, where the law calls for an environmental fund we could not find in operation.
Sources: 2022 Operating Rules, La Sombra de Arteaga · Querétaro Environmental Code · CódigoQro — Environmental fund in force (2025) · Trámites Querétaro — 2024 Fund agreement · Municipality of Querétaro — Environmental and Climate Regulation · FIQMA
This article is also available in Spanish. Read in Spanish