What’s hot, green and Mexican?

The Mexicans aren’t all that dumb, and I think in the long run this is by far the greatest problem facing our world.  And by long run I’m talking within this century, so within many of our lifetimes.

ASK anyone who has read a newspaper in the past few months what is the greatest threat faced by Mexico, and the answer will inevitably be the drug gangs whose violence resulted in over 6,000 deaths last year and is the main reason Barack Obama came to visit this week. Yet even though Felipe Calderón, the country’s president, has staked his job on his crackdown against the traffickers, he has a different answer to this question: global warming. “Climate change is the most important challenge that human beings are facing in this century,” he said on a recent visit to London.

via Mexico and climate change | What’s hot, green and Mexican? | The Economist.

Some numbers to go along with the rhetoric.

Mexico’s oil output is shrinking fast. But it has huge potential to produce renewable energy. Around 17% of its electricity now comes from hydro dams. Iberdrola, a Spanish utility, is building a giant wind farm at La Ventosa (“the windy place”), an area in the southern state of Oaxaca which features gusts strong enough to topple trucks. This will provide power to 200,000 people, and avoid the emission of 150,000 tons of carbon dioxide each year. The government is also in talks with Q-Cells, a German company, over setting up a factory to manufacture solar panels in an investment that could total up to $3.5 billion over five years. Mr Calderón is also seeking American investment in solar power in northern Mexico. According to a study by McKinsey, a management consultancy, the investment needed for Mexico to cut its emissions by a quarter from current levels by 2030 would see a net gain of 500,000 jobs.

Mr Calderón’s vocal advocacy of the issue also reflects some geopolitical opportunism. Although Mexico has the world’s 11th largest economy and population, it tends to punch below its weight in international affairs, largely because its close integration with the United States leads some to see it as an American satellite.