NY Times: President of Mexico Urges Action on Emissions

By REUTERS

Published: June 22, 2009

JIUTEPEC, Mexico (Reuters) —President Felipe Calderón warned governments on Monday not to let the economic crisis derail efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Speaking at a meeting of representatives of the world’s biggest economies on how to tackle climate change, Mr. Calderón said the world was running out of time to take serious action to address global warming.

“The finger-pointing has gone on for more than a decade without humanity taking a single step forward in the fight against climate change,” Mr. Calderón said at the meeting, which was held in the town of Jiutepec in a picturesque valley near Mexico City.

He said the global recession could make talks over emission goals even more complicated. “If it is hard in boom times to agree to steps that have an economic cost, it will be even harder during a recession,” he said.

World leaders are expected to sign a new climate change treaty in Copenhagen in December that will introduce binding emissions targets for fast-growing developing nations, but rich and poor countries disagree on how far to cut emissions.

Mr. Calderón said that failure to reach an agreement would produce a deterioration of the environment that would cost nations more than if they spent now to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

“Climate change will cost Mexico more than 6 percent of our gross domestic product, which is many times more than we are investing in the fight against climate change,” he said.

Emissions need to be reduced by 25 percent to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 if the worst effects of climate change are to be avoided, according to the United Nations’ Climate Panel.

China, India and other developing countries are calling on industrialized nations to agree to deep cuts of 40 percent or more in their emissions of greenhouse gases, saying that rich countries need to take climate change more seriously before they ask developing and poor nations to shoulder some of the burden.

Economist: What’s hot, green and Mexican?

Apr 16th 2009 | MEXICO CITY

Felipe Calderón wants to talk to Barack Obama about drugs—and windmills

ASK anyone who has read a newspaper in the past few months what is the greatest threat faced by Mexico, and the answer will inevitably be the drug gangs whose violence resulted in over 6,000 deaths last year and is the main reason Barack Obama came to visit this week. Yet even though Felipe Calderón, the country’s president, has staked his job on his crackdown against the traffickers, he has a different answer to this question: global warming. “Climate change is the most important challenge that human beings are facing in this century,” he said on a recent visit to London.

That might seem odd coming from the conservative leader of an oil-exporting developing country. But Mr Calderón has chosen to make the fight to reduce carbon emissions one of the hallmarks of his presidency, at least rhetorically. He wants Mexicans to commit to cutting their own emissions by half by 2050. He has urged the setting up of a global “Green Fund,” which would receive contributions from all but the poorest countries in the world to finance environmentally friendly projects. Mr Obama praised his suggestion of a North American cap-and-trade scheme.

Mr Calderón’s officials say his enthusiasm is motivated by pure utilitarian maths: Mexico is both one of the countries most vulnerable to global warming and one rich in renewable energy resources. It has been hit by extreme weather several times during his term: in 2007, a devastating flood put 80% of the southern state of Tabasco under water and caused some $5 billion in damage, while farming in the north has been hurt by a lengthy drought. Mexico lies in the path of hurricanes both from the Atlantic and Pacific which many scientists believe are becoming stronger as a result of rising sea temperatures. Rising sea levels from melting polar ice caps threaten nearly half of the country’s eastern seaboard.

Since Mexico produces just 1.5% of the world’s emissions, it will be affected by climate change regardless of what it does at home. But greens argue that it must practice what it preaches—especially if it wants to influence the debate on the issue in the United States. Moreover, officials see potential economic and diplomatic gains.

Mexico’s oil output is shrinking fast. But it has huge potential to produce renewable energy. Around 17% of its electricity now comes from hydro dams. Iberdrola, a Spanish utility, is building a giant wind farm at La Ventosa (“the windy place”), an area in the southern state of Oaxaca which features gusts strong enough to topple trucks. This will provide power to 200,000 people, and avoid the emission of 150,000 tons of carbon dioxide each year. The government is also in talks with Q-Cells, a German company, over setting up a factory to manufacture solar panels in an investment that could total up to $3.5 billion over five years. Mr Calderón is also seeking American investment in solar power in northern Mexico. According to a study by McKinsey, a management consultancy, the investment needed for Mexico to cut its emissions by a quarter from current levels by 2030 would see a net gain of 500,000 jobs.

Mr Calderón’s vocal advocacy of the issue also reflects some geopolitical opportunism. Although Mexico has the world’s 11th largest economy and population, it tends to punch below its weight in international affairs, largely because its close integration with the United States leads some to see it as an American satellite.

Taking the initiative on climate change might help Mr Calderón give Mexico a higher profile. Other large developing countries have been less willing to agree to cut their emissions, though Brazil may change its mind (see article). According to Juan Manuel Gómez Robledo, a senior Mexican diplomat, Mexico’s stance on climate change “increases our capacity for political dialogue internationally” and helps the country act as a bridge between the developed and developing worlds.

But will Mr Calderón be able to achieve the 5% drop in emissions he has promised by the time he leaves office in 2012? ProÁrbol, a much-hyped reforestation scheme, is widely considered a failure: of the 250m trees that were planted under the programme in 2007, officials admit that 40% have already died. Others put the figure much higher. The government’s climate-change plan makes no mention of how its lofty goals will be financed, a serious obstacle given the sharp slowdown in the Mexican economy. It would be more credible if it was backed by a carbon tax or local cap-and-trade scheme so that renewable energy could compete with fossil fuels on price. But the president is a quietly determined man, as he has shown in his battle with the drug traffickers. It is too early to dismiss his green credentials as merely for show.