Riding a Mexican wave

The progressive destruction of Mexico’s environment is costing the country the equivalent of 11% of its GDP every year. It’s enough to turn a growth rate of 5% into a net 6% contraction of the economy.

That’s the bold claim made by Environment Minister Victor Lichtinger, who has set out a raft of initiatives as a means of reversing the decline - including reorienting agricultural and industrial subsidies, compelling business to pay for the costs of all its waste treatment and, most controversially, introducing water charges.

There’s no doubting the gravity of the situation, says Lichtinger. Forest destruction is contributing to serious soil erosion, which now affects nearly two-thirds of the country, and key aquifers are being rapidly depleted. Much of Mexico City itself is sinking, he says. Appointed by President Vincente Fox, Lichtinger serves on the powerful economic cabinet - testament, he told Green Futures, to Fox’s insistence that environmental restoration should inform key aspects of economic strategy - from interest rates and tariffs to energy and industrial policy.

Lichtinger’s priorities include:

• shifting agricultural subsidies away from production towards conservation;
• introducing water charges according to consumption;
• applying a ‘polluter pays’ regime to business, notably for waste treatment and disposal;
• providing incentives for improving energy efficiency and developing renewables;
• protecting and planting forests for ‘carbon sequestration’ purposes;
• redirecting Mexico’s booming tourist industry towards genuine ‘eco tourism’;
• publishing national ecological accounts.

Of all the proposed policy shifts, introducing water charges has proved the most controversial. "The press accuse me of taking a ‘capitalist’ approach to something which is god-given and so should be freely available. But I always respond by saying, ‘Yes, but did God clean it, pump it, take it away in sewers and treat it?’"

Under Lichtinger’s leadership, Mexico is also bringing together other countries that boast ‘megadiversity’ (in terms of biology and culture), including Malaysia, South Africa and Indonesia, with a view to working on initiatives that will help them develop their economies while safeguarding environmental quality.

"Countries like Mexico, Brazil, India and Indonesia are the bridge between the developed and the developing world," said Lichtinger. The next stage of the battle to control climate change will be in our hands."

Environmentalists are for the most part prepared to give Lichtinger a fair wind, but question just how deep his support runs within the government. Ricardo Navarro, chair of Friends of the Earth International, told Green Futures that while he welcomed Lichtinger’s commitment, he feared that “President Fox is more interested in ‘Globalized Mexico’ than in "Ecological Mexico", and that of course is a serious obstacle for environmental programmes.” - Martin Wright

22 July 2002

Martin Wright