FuzzyLumpkins
04-21-2012, 04:54 AM
Mexico's Senate unanimously approved landmark climate change legislation yesterday that sets the country on a pioneering path to drastically reduce its domestic greenhouse gas emissions.
The measure calls for Mexico to cut carbon 30 percent below business-as-usual growth by 2030 and 50 percent by midcentury. It now goes to President Felipe Calderón, who has championed action to control climate change and is expected to sign it.
Once the legislation is finalized, Mexico will be only the second country after the United Kingdom to have domestic global warming legislation in place, activists said. It also will be a leader among developing nations taking concrete steps to rein in explosive carbon growth.
"No developing country in the world has a climate law, let alone a climate law that has this vision and this ambition, that integrates all of the sectors at the national level in a system for climate change," said Vanessa Perez-Cirera, head of climate and energy programs for WWF Mexico.
Mexico is the world's 11th-largest economy, as well as the 11th-largest greenhouse gas emitter. But under the rules of the U.N. climate change regime, it is not yet obligated to curb carbon. Activists said yesterday that Mexico has a long way to go -- the new bill, which passed 78-0 just a week after overwhelming House passage, does not put a price on carbon, nor does it mandate that the country meet the emission reduction goals.
But by putting the targets into law and mandating a set of regulations -- including requiring 35 percent of the country's electricity to come from clean sources by 2024; establishing a voluntary carbon market; developing incentives to promote renewable energy; phasing out fossil fuel subsidies; and forcing companies in the largest carbon polluting sectors to report their emissions -- they said the results could be groundbreaking.
"It's a major thing. We're making these targets legally binding, so we're actually putting our actions where our mouth is," Perez-Cirera said.
Excerpt fom: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=mexico-approves-landmark-climate-law
The measure calls for Mexico to cut carbon 30 percent below business-as-usual growth by 2030 and 50 percent by midcentury. It now goes to President Felipe Calderón, who has championed action to control climate change and is expected to sign it.
Once the legislation is finalized, Mexico will be only the second country after the United Kingdom to have domestic global warming legislation in place, activists said. It also will be a leader among developing nations taking concrete steps to rein in explosive carbon growth.
"No developing country in the world has a climate law, let alone a climate law that has this vision and this ambition, that integrates all of the sectors at the national level in a system for climate change," said Vanessa Perez-Cirera, head of climate and energy programs for WWF Mexico.
Mexico is the world's 11th-largest economy, as well as the 11th-largest greenhouse gas emitter. But under the rules of the U.N. climate change regime, it is not yet obligated to curb carbon. Activists said yesterday that Mexico has a long way to go -- the new bill, which passed 78-0 just a week after overwhelming House passage, does not put a price on carbon, nor does it mandate that the country meet the emission reduction goals.
But by putting the targets into law and mandating a set of regulations -- including requiring 35 percent of the country's electricity to come from clean sources by 2024; establishing a voluntary carbon market; developing incentives to promote renewable energy; phasing out fossil fuel subsidies; and forcing companies in the largest carbon polluting sectors to report their emissions -- they said the results could be groundbreaking.
"It's a major thing. We're making these targets legally binding, so we're actually putting our actions where our mouth is," Perez-Cirera said.
Excerpt fom: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=mexico-approves-landmark-climate-law