MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico committed to expanding its climate change goals by 2022 following a visit by U.S. climate adviser John Kerry, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Tuesday.
Kerry was in Mexico on Monday to meet with his counterparts ahead of the upcoming United Nations’ COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, which neither President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador nor Ebrard are expected to attend.
Ebrard, speaking in a regular news conference, said Mexico will reiterate its established climate goals at COP26, but added that Lopez Obrador had agreed to expand them by 2022.
“I insist not on setting objectives that correspond to other governments, but starting now to increase our goal, our commitment as a country, and try to accelerate the pace,” Ebrard told reporters, without offering further details.
By 2030, Mexico, has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 22%. Latin America’s second-largest economy is also a participant in a global initiative to reduce methane emissions.
The United States and Mexico will work together to accelerate the goal of reducing emissions, Ebrard said, adding that exploring options for financing the “green economy” would also be a priority.
Mexico, the second-largest greenhouse gas emitter in Latin America, has faced criticism over its current policies. Climate Action Tracker, a research coalition, says the country’s policies put it on a current path to “rising, rather than falling, emissions and are not at all consistent with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5 degrees Celsius temperature limit.”
Lopez Obrador has touted his signature tree-planting program as one of the “most important reforestation projects in the world,” which he said will help tackle carbon emissions, combined with efforts to revitalize hydropower projects.
(Reporting by Cassandra Garrison; Editing by Paul Simao)
