The Reality of Mexico's Climate-Change Promises Mac Margolis - Bloomberg View
go to original April 13, 2015

Mexico has become the first nation to meet the United Nations' challenge to publish a plan for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Implementing those plans, however, will be tricky. CCTV America's Franc Contreras filed this report from Mexico City. (CCTV America)

The Mexican government's pledge to slash greenhouse gas emissions has brought some welcome applause. Green groups hailed Pena Nieto's plan as bold and pioneering, and the White House praised Mexico for "setting an example for the rest of the world" with a "landmark" initiative it called "timely, clear, ambitious, and supported by robust, unconditional policy commitments."

By promising to halt the rise of climate-warming gases by 2026, and then drive them down 22 percent by 2030, Mexico became the first developing nation to meet the United Nations' challenge to publish a road map for combating climate change.

In stepping up, Mexico stood out. "We are trying to show that what we say in the negotiations, we stand by our words," Mexico's chief negotiator at the U.N. climate talks, Roberto Dondisch Glowinski, said late last month. "We want to show that it is feasible."

Mexico's plan comes with conditions, such as a demand for technical cooperation. The new climate change agreement between Mexico and the U.S., signed in late March, should help. Technology transfer may be trickier, since that demand could step on international property rights of tech providers, according to an analysis by Brookings Institution. Then there's the stipulation of setting an international carbon price, an elusive goal that Brookings analysts Timmons Roberts and Guy Edwards said could prove to be the "poison pill" of Mexico's pledge.

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