CLIMATE CHANGE | Mexican, South and Central American Involvement in Cancun

Coverage within South and Central America and Mexico is more than I had expected. As I skimmed through youtube, I found several commercials regarding “green” tips being played in Mexico, and also several Mexican newspapers had headlines regarding the Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

I also saw that there was a conference held in Mexico City, Mexico before the conference started, so somewhere other than Cancun was also getting traffic due to climate change talks.

Mexico’s President, Felipe Calderon Hinojosa has made statements about climate change, in support of a plan that battles climate change with a binding legal agreement, though Mexican authorities then warned that there will be no binding agreement at COP16.

The most coverage and excitement seems to be coming from Mexico, though South American and Central American leaders are present and will be supporting action to combat climate change. Mexico has the largest wind farm in Latin America, and financial plans are underway already to support production of clean energy. Mexico, South and Central America all “feel the effects” of climate change and are in support of a change and will support change. As far as coverage, Mexico seems to be the only country to go as far as making commercials. One factor to consider is much of Central and South America is impoverished and the people there may not have exposure to media.