Greening Quetzalcóatl

Colossal riches; mighty challenges. Can President Felipe Calderón put Mexico on the path to a greener life? Jonathon Porritt and Ben Tuxworth consider the evidence. 
When Mexico hosts World Environment Day in June this year, what will there be to celebrate? The country certainly has its share of riches: ecological ‘megadiversity’; an example of almost every habitat in a land touching the Caribbean, the Pacific and the Atlantic; a population of 107 million with 60 different indigenous groups, making it the second most culturally diverse in the world; bountiful mineral and fossil fuel reserves; huge renewable energy potential; and, in Mexico City, one of the world’s greatest conurbations.

Mexico, of course, also faces distinctive challenges. The rising drug-related violence that’s been such a regular feature of the news in recent months speaks of a nation struggling to address huge income inequalities. Absolute poverty remains a reality for around 20% of Mexicans, with income disparities between urban and rural, and north and south, and few advancement opportunities for the largely
Amerindian population in the impoverished southern states.

Government figures project a further 29 million Mexicans added to the population before it stabilises mid-century. Membership of The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation (OECD) has helped forge a newly dynamic economy, but this is also bringing environmental damage at an accelerated rate. In 2008, Mexico’s share of global CO2 emissions stood at 1.5%, the largest in Latin America, and only a little behind that of the UK. And WWF’s most recent Living Planet report placed Mexico among countries in the world living beyond their ecological means, though still some way behind the excesses of the rest of North America. Water shortages in the arid north of the country, and a growing frequency of hurricanes in the south, point to the early effects of climate change. Mexico has the third highest rate of forest loss in the world (after Brazil and Indonesia) – and, despite recent improvements, deforestation, desertification and air pollution remain problematic despite recent improvements. 

So can Mexico harness its undoubted advantages and create a sustainable future for its people and the world? 

“Sustainability is possible anywhere in the world if public policy and changes in attitude coincide and are focused on this goal,” says José Sarukhán, one of the founding fathers of ecological research in the country. “But it isn’t easy and in Mexico we are at the very beginning. What I do feel is very important is that President Calderón has put sustainable development at the heart of his priorities. Not just promises of environmental improvements, but sustainable development as a vision, and this is the first time I have seen a president do that.” 

There are certainly promising signs that the Calderón administration, which took office in December 2006, is taking its environmental and social responsibilities seriously. Of course, there were foundations to build on. As long ago as 1989, with help from the World Bank, Mexico established a National Commission for Energy Saving. Measures including greater use of natural gas, energy efficiency, and reductions in deforestation have helped curb growth in the country’s CO2 emissions by around ten million tons per year since 1990. The Environment Ministry had already put in place a whole host of agencies with the mandate to guard Mexico’s rich natural resources, including the National Forest Commission and the National Water Commission. And, although renewable energy is still in its infancy, a target for generating 8% of electricity from renewables by 2012 was set under the then President Vicente Fox’s 2005 law on the
Exploitation of Renewable Energy Resources. 

But there’s no doubt that things have moved up a gear since Calderón’s inauguration. Among his first visitors were the UK’s then Foreign and Environment Secretaries, Margaret Beckett and David Miliband; on the agenda was joint work on sustainable development, and the President was receptive to British arguments for urgent action. A series of major measures have followed, notably on enshrining sustainability as a priority in the national development plan, setting out plans to curb greenhouse gas emissions, expanding sustainable forestry, protecting biodiversity and boosting wind power. But there is plenty still on Calderón’s ‘to do’ list, and it’s essential that environmental protection is seen as part of the solution to Mexico’s many problems, rather than a brake on its development.

As the international economic crisis deepens, it would be easy for Mexico’s relatively new environmental agenda to be blown off course. Sarukhán fears that an entrenched culture may be part of the problem.

“The unions… and other private interests that have benefited from the way things are done are particularly resistant to change. The petrol workers’ union, for example, has an interest in blocking a more sensible use of resources. I think they are going to change, but the question is how long it is going to take, and each year that passes without much progress leaves an even harder problem to solve.” 

Though public awareness of sustainability issues is still quite low in Mexico, expectations of the social role of business are high. Combined with a growing band of international and homegrown NGOs now engaging with Mexican corporations to help raise their game on sustainability, business has a new mandate for action. 

To help build the business case for action, the UK Government is supporting a study by the Universidad Autónoma de México on the economic impacts of climate change. Modelled on the UK’s Stern report, this aims to set out the arguments for action on climate change from an economic perspective. Major Mexican and foreign companies with bases in the country are responding well, ramping up their efforts on sustainability, building on a strong tradition of philanthropy and paternalism on social causes. 

But can sustainable development really be the answer to some of the crushing social and security problems facing the rural poor, including the surge in drug-related crime? Sarukhán is optimistic: “Helping people in rural areas make a living by using their natural capital would be a huge change and an enormous sociological and psychological advance. It might mitigate the social destruction caused by drug traffickers.” He cites the evidence coming from countless small-scale projects in Mexico’s rural areas. “In Mexico, 75% of the forests are communal property. We have always considered this as an obstacle but in fact it’s a solution. Mexico is already the world number one for community forests certified as sustainable, preserving natural capital and providing an income for the communities that live there. We need concerted government effort to reproduce these schemes, because if the owners of natural capital don’t see any value in it, then they will destroy it.”

Mexico’s emergence as a major global economy and a bridge between the US and the rest of Latin America brings a new responsibility – for leadership on sustainable development. With many of the right policy commitments in place, it’s now time to turn promises into reality. 

Jonathon Porritt is Founder Director of Forum for the Future and Chair of the UK Government’s Sustainable Development Commission. Ben Tuxworth is Communications Director of Forum for the Future. Additional research by Jo Tuckman.

This article is part of the Green Futures Special Publication Viva la vida verde, in which we set out the key sustainability challenges facing Mexico, and showcase some of the innovative green breakthroughs under way. Read more articles here.

27 February 2009

Ben Tuxworth and Jonathon Porritt