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 Editorials | Environmental | June 2007 
Mexico Taking a Lead Role in Global Warming Fight
 Oscar Avila - Chicago Tribune
| | A girl pushes her bike along the sand of Ipanema beach as the mist covers the landscape due to the high changes in temperature, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Brazil's sprawling Amazon state on Tuesday enacted the country's first law to fight global warming by selling carbon credits from communities that limit deforestation and environmental degradation. (AFP/Antonio Scorza) |
Mexico City - As it does with other developing nations, the Kyoto Protocol leaves Mexico off the hook to curb greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.
But Mexican leaders are starting to concede that they can no longer overlook that their nation contributes to the causes and suffers the pain of climate change.
The belching factories and sea of auto traffic generate carbon emissions visible in the brown haze blanketing Mexico City. Meanwhile, officials worry that warmer temperatures have left Mexico vulnerable to natural disasters, such as landslides, droughts and more potent hurricanes.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon won international praise when he rolled out the country's first national blueprint for reducing carbon emissions last month. For now, Mexico is avoiding tough tasks, such as confronting the powerful state-run energy sector, in favor of ideas such as planting trees in deforested areas.
Mexico's initiative came as the Group of Eight leading industrial nations, which met in Germany last week, debated whether larger developing countries should join the follow-up to Kyoto. The U.S. is touting a plan, aimed squarely at China, that would incorporate emerging economies.
With developing nations responsible for 73 percent of emissions growth between 2000 and 2004, Mexican officials say they hope to illustrate that these countries can voluntarily attack global warming without jeopardizing their fragile economies.
An example for other nations
As he briefed foreign journalists on Mexico's plan, Environment Secretary Juan Rafael Elvira said the government aims to "promote this new political approach that Mexico has to combat climate change and - why not - be an example as a nation, an approach that many other countries can follow."
Even without strict national standards, Mexico has made progress. As its economy grew, the nation's carbon emissions actually dipped slightly between 1998 and 2002, according to a voluntary report Mexico filed last year with the United Nations.
Mexico is believed to be the first developing nation to encourage manufacturers to measure and report their greenhouse gas emissions, using international standards. The GHG Mexico program is backed by European governments and environmental groups such as the Washington-based World Resources Institute.
After helping launch the pilot program in 2004, the Mexican government has extended the project, which now includes about 30 major manufacturers, including Hitachi's plant in Guadalajara. With the emissions catalogued, companies now will work to reduce them.
But President Bush said voluntary measures are not enough, and this month he pitched a proposal to include several developing nations, Mexico probably among them, in a worldwide plan to curb greenhouse gases. The Kyoto Protocol, which the U.S. has not signed on to, currently focuses only on industrialized nations and expires in 2012.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva joined other critics in accusing Bush of trying to derail the Kyoto process with his competing proposal.
Ricardo Sanchez, Latin America director for the UN Environment Program, said Bush is right that developing nations must do their part. But Sanchez said Mexico's voluntary approach is the more appropriate model, considering Mexico generates only 1.5 percent of the world's emissions, compared with 23.7 percent for the U.S.
"The developed nations bear the greatest responsibility for the greenhouse gases that are causing the problems now. From an ethical and political perspective, they have the responsibility to find the solutions," Sanchez said in an interview.
The problem for nations such as Mexico is how to curb emissions while not putting the brakes on economic growth. Elvira, the environment secretary, referred to an axiom about basic needs taking precedence over ideals: "First, eat. Then, be a Christian." He said the reality in Mexico is: "First, eat. Then take care of the environment."
250 million trees
Officials hope an initiative to plant about 250 million trees will serve the economy and the environment. The UN has praised the project, which builds on reforestation efforts in Oaxaca and Chiapas. Trees and other plants use carbon dioxide and release oxygen, helping mitigate global warming.
The ProArbol initiative, announced this year, would offer financial incentives to farmers who plant and care for trees. The program has already received about 80,000 applications, three times what officials were projecting.
Mario Molina, the Mexican chemist who won a Nobel Prize for his research on greenhouse gases, warned that climate change should not be a casualty of economic development, as often happens in developing nations eager to catch up with richer ones.
"The reality is that [emerging economies] cannot develop in the same way that the rich countries have up to now, destroying and contaminating the environment," Molina said in an interview with Letras Libres magazine, part of this month's cover story on climate change called "Apocalypse Soon?"
In fact, a report this year by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Mexico's economy was "particularly vulnerable" to climate change because so much activity, including oil production, fishing and tourism, is concentrated along the coasts.
Many officials say global warming has contributed to potent hurricanes including 2005's Hurricane Wilma, which devastated Cancun's tourist industry and shoreline. Others worry that droughts could damage Mexico's corn harvests.
Gustavo Alanis, an environmentalist frequently critical of the Mexican government, said he has seen positive signs, including expansion of public transit and a Mexico City ordinance that removes cars from circulation one day a week.
Alanis, president of the Mexican Environmental Law Center, credits Calderon for elevating climate change on the national agenda but said he hopes the government devotes more money to the task.
The next challenge, Alanis said, is pushing renewable energy sources, despite the resistance of Pemex, the powerful state-run oil concern. Mexico uses renewable energy at about half the average rate for Latin America.
"My fear is that there will be a lot of talk, a lot written, but at the time of implementation, we will fall short," he said.
oavila@tribune.com |
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