JURIST - Paper Chase: Mexico president signs climate change bill

[JURIST] Mexican President Felipe Calderon [official website, in Spanish] has signed a climate change bill that will introduce sweeping environmental reform. The bill requires the country to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent by 2020, requires 35 percent of its energy come form renewable sources by 2024, requires mandatory emissions reporting, establishes a carbon-trading market and creates a commission to oversee implementation of the changes. Calderon said on his Twitter [media website] page Tuesday that the bill has made Mexico the first developing nation [Twitter post, in Spanish] to pass such a law. The Mexican legislature passed the bill [JURIST report] in April, with a vote of 128-10 in the Chamber of Deputies and a unanimous vote in the Senate [official websites, in Spanish].

Mexico is following a global trend of countries implementing their own climate change laws rather then relying on international agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol [text; JURIST news archive]. In December Canada withdrew [JURIST report] from the Kyoto Protocol. Earlier in December 194 countries agreed to extend [JURIST report] the Kyoto Protocol until 2017 after they failed to institute a new internationally-binding climate change treaty in 2009. In November Australia passed a law that imposes a price on carbon emissions [JURIST report] in an effort to improve the environment and the country's economy. In 2007 the UK introduced its own climate change legislation [JURIST report], pledging to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 60 percent by 2050. The Kyoto Protocol was adopted [JURIST report] in 2005.