Quintana Roo is working towards an economy with zero net carbon emissions, shouldn’t Yucatan be doing the same?
On behalf of Quintana Roo’s Governor Carlos Joaquín, during his participation in the Tenth Annual Meeting of the Working Group of Governors for Climate and Forests held in San Francisco, California, USA; the Secretary of Ecology and Environment Alfredo Arellano Guillermo was present at the Assembly General of the UNDER2 MOU, towards an economy of zero net carbon emissions in 2050.
Arellano explained that the Memorandum of Understanding on Global Leadership in the face of climate change, called in English “Under 2 MOU”, is an initiative by which subnational governments commit themselves to adopt emission reduction goals in accordance with the best scientfic resources available for this purpose, contribute to increasing the level of international ambition at COP21 to combat climate change.
“More than 80 subnational governments, among them Quintana Roo are committed to implementing measures that contribute to maintaining the global temperature rise by less than 2 degrees centigrade, and to becoming entities with zero net emissions of greenhouse gases in 2050. Each member commits to reduce emissions between 80 and 95 percent by 2050, below 1990 levels”, continued the official.
“We need to commit to generating per capita emissions below two metric tons. This is the level of emission reduction that is considered necessary to limit the increase in average temperature to less than 2 ° C by the end of this century”; Arellano Guillermo, representative of the State Executive Carlos Joaquín, expressed in the General Assembly of the UNDER2 MOU.
Under 2 MOU originated as a result of an association between California, in the United States and Baden-Württemberg, in Germany. To date, 23 states, provinces, regions and cities in ten countries and five continents have joined Under 2 MOU, from Jalisco and Quintana Roo, in Mexico, Acre, in Brazil, to Wales, in the United Kingdom, and Zhenjiang City, in the Chinese province of Jiangsu. In total, the adhered territories represent 141 million people and more than 5.5 trillion dollars in gross domestic product (GDP).
Members seek to achieve their goals through the development of medium-term objectives needed to support long-term goals; share technology, scientific research and best practices; collaboration to expand the use of vehicles with zero emissions; adoption of measures that guarantee coherent monitoring and notification; improvement in air quality by reducing short-lived climate pollutants; and evaluation of projections of climate impacts in the urban communities.
Source: The Riviera Maya Times
