Climate change; great ambition, blurry reality

Around the North Pole of the Earth, there is a white and blue territory known as the Arctic . In scenes of polar bears without food, pieces of ice melting at high speed and compassless midnight suns without, scientists have visualized the most disturbing impact of man in nature. What is evident there echoes around the world.

The human footprint

is becoming more evident in a phenomenon that was still viewed with skepticism three decades ago, but now the proves add showing the powerful impact that human activities have had to warm the planet and provoke the so-called climate change. More than 11 thousand kilometers away from this frigid area of the planet is Mexico , whose geographic location makes it be recognized as one of the areas of the world most vulnerable to this phenomenon, and which also occupies the 12th place as an emitter at a global level.

The temperature of the planet's surface increased 0.74° in the last century. Experts believe that the increase in ocean level is directly proportional to the warming generated: sea level has increased an average of 1.8 mm since 1961 and 3.1 mm since 1993. Anthropogenic activities are estimated to add to the atmosphere around 28 billion tons of CO2 per year, the most important greenhouse gas (GHG) in this equation.

The United States

and China generate about 40% of the gases that raise the global temperature. Despite this, the current US president decided to leave one of the great achievements on environment in the world: the Paris Agreement . This is a new agreement signed by 195 countries at the end of 2015, which came into force on November 4, 2016, under the supervision of the UN . Its objective is to limit the rise in global temperature to less than two degrees Celsius per year through commitments that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The pact has been ratified by 147 of the countries involved, Mexico among them, who confirmed its commitment to reduce its GHG emissions by 22%.

Globally, the largest source of greenhouse gases comes from the generation of electricity, but in Mexico, this place is occupied by transportation.

The other key commitment that Mexico has made in the Paris Agreement is reducing its emissions from the industrial sector to generate 35% of clean energy in 2024 and 43% in 2030. International assessments of these commitments place us "with an average level of ambition ". This means that they are still insufficient efforts to maintain the global temperature according to the Paris agreement.

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