Mexico has reduced 19.5 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions last two years, the Agriculture Ministry said on Monday. Of the total, more than 2 million tons of reduction, or a 10.6 per cent drop, were achieved through “green agricultural activities,” the Ministry said in a statement.
Those activities include replacing fishing boat motors with newer less polluting equipment, replanting 298,200 of land, dedicating 250,000 hectares to conversation. There are also governmental programs to reduce the use of fertilizers, which are largely made from hydrocarbons, and to cut the burning of methane, an agricultural waste gas that is 22 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.
Mexico has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 million tons a year by December 2012, which is the end of the presidency of Felipe Calderon, who has made green issues a top policy priority.
That figure was equal to the amount of gas emissions of all Mexico City’s vehicles for four and a half years. Mexico’s efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions have been recognized by the United Nations, which has made Mexico the host of the upcoming 16th Conference of the Parties on Climate Change in Cancun, Mexico’s Caribbean resort.
