Mexico – Stepping up their environmental protection game
“Climate change is a global challenge that demands a rapid and decisive response from every nation. In order to face it and to contain its effects, it is necessary that each country takes bold actions within its own boundaries.
Mexico assumes its commitment and global responsibility in the face of this challenge, which threatens the whole of humankind.” – Enrique Peña Nieto, President of Mexico
Climate change is emerging as one of the most problematic global issues to date. The global climate level has been in a continuous cycle of change for billions of years, therefore it’s nothing new that the planet is warming up again, but now it’s not part of the natural process, as most studies show it’s human induced.
Great efforts need to be connected in order to stop the increase of global warming, species extinction and ecosystem changes worldwide, and we’re seeing these efforts in the actions undertaken by various governments around the world, such those in the United Kingdom, Laos or Costa Rica or as show by data presented by the Environmental Performance Index.
For Mexico, the climate change goes beyond developing specific measures and initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas and compound emissions. It also relates to social, economic and environmental problems that already affect its population, infrastructure, production systems and ecosystems.
The National Climate Change Strategy represents the planning instrument that empowers Mexico’s long term vision, through a set of national priorities and regional priorities.
This long term vision aims for the promotion of a sustainable and equitable management of its natural resources, while moving for a low-emissions development by using clean and renewable energy.
When these milestones will be achieved, Mexico should be a prosperous, competitive, socially inclusive and globally responsible country, which generates enough well paid jobs for its population.
In the past, Mexico was vulnerable to the effects of climate change. The socio-economic and socio-ecological trends, the decay of natural resources that is a result of these trends, combined with the current industrialization and urbanization phenomenon, paved the way for Mexico to slowly but surely become a contributor of CO2 emissions.
By producing 1.4% of the world’s emissions, it ranked as the 12th highest greenhouse gas producer in the world, back in 2011. Being a globally responsive country, Mexico always claimed that economic development could and should be achieved while protecting the environment. Therefore, the General Climate Change Law and the National Climate Change System were developed and introduced.
The General Climate Change Law
This is Mexico’s main political tool for efficiently tackling the climate change issue. This legislative instrument was created in order to regulate, encourage and make the implementation of the national climate change policy possible.
The General Climate Change Law establishes the scope and content of the national climate change policy, including the duties & obligations of State authorities and clarifies the institutional mechanism that needs to work in order for Mexico to overcome this challenge.
Therefore, the Federal Government of Mexico is responsible for conducting and supervising the national climate change implementation strategy.
By actively engaging this topic, Mexico has established clear targets for the coming decades:
- 30% GHG emissions reduction in 2020 with respect to baseline
- 35% of electricity generation from clean energy sources in 2024
- 50% GHG emissions reduction in 2050 with respect to 2000 emissions
The National Climate Change System
In order to achieve an efficient coordination between the public, private and social sectors, given the various government orders that need to be followed, the GCCL went on and created the National Climate Change System – NCCS.
This system aims to create synergy between all of the involved parties, generating a higher degree of awareness regarding the risks posed by climate change.
The National Climate Change Strategy is the guiding tool of the national climate change policy, aiming for medium and long-term climate improvements, in order to remedy the impacts of climate change and make an efficient transition towards a more competitive, sustainable and low-carbon emission economy.
As a guiding tool, it explains the strategic axes and directions that need to be followed, so that government policies can support specific paths of action, and to encourage a growing level of awareness and responsibility among its citizens.
Following its implementation in 2013, Mexico has embarked on a path of climate protection which didn’t went unnoticed by the world.
From the 12th highest GHG producer in 2011, they managed to develop and efficiently implement a climate change strategy which lead them to an amazing performance in 2015 – 7th place in the world and 3rd place in the region for climate protection.
Mexico 2015 Climatescope Performance Results
Mexico taught the world a lesson, by acknowledging the negative effects of climate change and their own part in adding to it. They’ve stepped up, developed and implemented an entire strategy which everyone accepted and followed thoroughly, leading them to be one of the top performers in the present fight against climate change.
“Someday, our children, and our children’s children, will look at us in the eye and they’ll ask us, did we do all that we could when we had the chance to deal with this problem and leave them a cleaner, safe, more stable world?” – Barack Obama – President of the United States of America
Image sources:
- Pixabay
- Pixabay
- Mexico National Climate Change Strategy
- Mexico Climatescope Results sources: Global Climatescope.org
Tags: Environment performance, Government performance, Performance in Mexico
