Remarks by the President of the United Mexican States, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, during the Inauguration of the Cancun Electric Wind Turbine, which took place in this municipality.
How about it, friends.
Good afternoon.
Mr. Félix González Canto, Governor of the State of Quintana Roo.
Mr. Deputy Luis Alberto González Flores, President of the State Congress.
Judge Lizbeth Loy Song, Chief Justice of the High Court of Justice.
Jaime Hernández Zaragoza, Municipal President of Benito Juárez.
General Anastasio García, Commander of the XXXIV Military Zone.
Distinguished members of the presidium.
Engineer Miguel Ángel Alonso, Director of Acciona Energía México.
Ladies and gentlemen:
I am very pleased to be able to be here today, on the eve of the Opening of the 16th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations, which will take place precisely here in Cancun, Mexico.
And, above all, to start up this modern wind turbine that will supply clean energy, non-polluting energy, the work of COP16, the most important environmental event globally, which will take place from tomorrow.
With the help of the Caribbean wind, the blades of this wind turbine will produce a part of the energy that COP16 will require.
Let me tell you that this wind turbine, behind me, is one of the most modern and efficient of its kind in the world.
To give you an idea, the first test wind turbines that the CFE installed many years ago, barely gave with difficulty a quarter of megawatts, and they were there, many years, in Oaxaca, which did not complete even the two megawatts. For many years it was the only thing there was in Mexico.
This wind turbine has a capacity of 1.5 megawatts, it is, let's say, six times more, more than six times what the first wind turbines that were practically tested, sampled, in Mexico for a long time gave.
To give them an idea. A house, on average, in Mexico, consumes a kilowatt of capacity, which means that more than one thousand 500 houses could be powered by a wind turbine like this.
In Mexico, as the engineer Elías Ayub already said, we started with that mega that existed, experimental, many years ago. We started the project, effectively, when I was Secretary of Energy, for the first 100 megawatts, there in La Venta, Tabasco.
And now in Mexico we are more or less developing, we already have 500 megawatts established, and I hope to be able to finish my government with two thousand or more than two thousand, two thousand 200 megawatts of wind generation.
Many times we had the equivalence rule that more or less one megawatt of capacity was equivalent to a wind turbine like these. The capacity of the wind turbines has been increasing, and is now 1.5 for each of these towers.
And as we will see in the days of the Conference of the Parties, in which we will present the potential of clean energy that our country has, Mexico could, I anticipate some news that we would give in time, could generate, according to calculations of the Ministry of Energy, up to 71 thousand megawatts of wind energy in the country.
Why.
Because we are a privileged country. We have more than 10 thousand kilometers of coastline, the confluence on an isthmus of the two oceans: the Pacific and the Atlantic, in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec
We have enormous wind energy potential.
What does this mean, folks.
Imagine. That if we are now of installed capacity, including the Laguna Verde Nuclear Power Plant, geothermal power plants, the dams of Chiapas and the whole country, the modern combined cycle plants, the old thermoelectric plants, we have, what will be Alfredo, about 51 thousand megawatts of capacity installed.
It means that, in preliminary estimates, if we could put all the installed capacity of wind energy, it would be enough to give electricity to all of Mexico.
Still the relative costs of wind energy are still complex, they are still higher than traditional energy, but I think that very soon, friends, we will reach a break-even point. In fact, when the price of oil rises and when the price of gas rises, even wind energy begins to become very profitable.
It has the advantage that they are basically entry costs, they are initial investment costs, because the cost of wind energy, the marginal cost, the cost of operation, is significantly lower than practically any other or many of the energy sources.
That is, you do not have to have many hired personnel; you don't have to throw coal, fuel oil, or oil into it to make electricity generation work. The force of the wind is enough.
With this wind turbine, in addition, they will stop emitting two thousand tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere per year, which is equivalent to the emission made by several hundred cars.
What is the problem with climate change?
That from the industrial civilization, in which we began to use a lot of oil, a lot of gasoline, a lot of coal, both for industry and for the automobile, humanity began to throw more tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than ever before.
And what is the problem with that.
That the carbon dioxide accumulated in the atmosphere works like a large sweater in the atmosphere, which no longer lets out the heat that must return, be retacharse, we would say in my town, to the atmosphere, but causes it to accumulate, and that, obviously, causes the phenomenon called global warming. The Earth begins to warm.
Indeed, average temperatures rise in many parts of the world. The sea is warmer than usual, has a higher average temperature, and that generates, in turn, several problems.
For example. When the sea has a higher temperature, water, water molecules, like any molecule, expand more, the sea occupies more volume; And if we add to that that global warming is also melting the poles, there is more water, let's say, or the volume of water in the liquid state, the H2O in the liquid state, is of a higher density, and that is raising the level of the oceans, about two millimeters per year, for the last century.
Another problem generated by global warming relative to the sea, is that the Caribbean Sea, which is on average warmer, like any pot of boiling water; if you take a pot of water out of the refrigerator, and bring it to a boil, it takes longer to boil than a pot of water that you take at room temperature; or a preheated water takes even less time to boil. Same the sea.
A Caribbean Sea, with higher average temperatures, generates faster evaporation, and faster, and also more violent formation of hurricanes. And for that reason, hurricanes over the past 10 years have been more violent than had traditionally occurred here, in the Yucatan Peninsula, and virtually throughout the Caribbean.
What we can do to prevent global warming and climate change.
Obviously, the indicated route is to reduce carbon emissions.
The great discussion that we will have here, at the Conference of the Parties, in Cancun, and that is the great discussion that is taking place in the world is, that for many reducing carbon emissions implies slowing down economic development. That is, there are those who say: Well, how are we going to do it. If we stop emitting carbon dioxide. We're going to stop producing in industries, we're going to stop moving cars.
And the truth, friends, that has generated a dilemma for many countries. Poor countries, for example, say, or we often say: No, I need to keep burning carbon, because I need to eliminate the poverty I have. And so the dilemma is: either I fight climate change, or I fight poverty.
And for all countries the dilemma is: I need to keep growing; so if I fight climate change I'm going to stop growing.
But I say, my friends, that this dilemma, between protecting the environment and fighting poverty, between combating climate change and economic growth, is a false dilemma.
Why.
Because it is possible, at the same time, to combat climate change and continue to grow economically. And an example is behind me, and that is renewable energy, which is, precisely, the key to sustainable development, the key to so-called green growth.
And how does that happen. Let me go to an extreme. Let's assume, that at one end is the growth model that has us carbon-based, all the oil and carbon is still burning in all countries. For what. To generate the electricity we use in homes, which they use in factories to produce the goods and services we use.
Let me assume there is another extreme. Let's assume that all electricity could be generated from renewable energies, such as this wind turbine; between wind turbines, or dams, or solar energy, or many others, that all the electricity was generated like this, what would happen. Houses could continue to be moved, or houses and factories could continue to be powered by renewable energy. There could be growth without the need to make carbon emissions and stopping global warming.
And you will say to me: And the cars. Cars could also be made electric. For now there is a breakthrough in hybrids. It is already on sale in the world, even, the first all-electric vehicle. This opens a gap, precisely, for sustainable development.
Another thing that we are going to do here, at the COP, in Cancun, is that a good part of the buses that are going to move visitors are buses that move not from gasoline or diesel derived from petroleum, but from diesel that derives from plants, such as fig or palm; that is, renewable energy again, much lower in carbon emissions, which could, precisely, as will happen in Cancun, move vehicles.
Of course, it is very difficult, and certainly in the short term, for all energy to be renewable, but to the extent that countries like Mexico and around the world are increasingly opting for renewable energy, to that same extent we will reduce carbon emissions, which ideally we would have to emit, of not doing so.
That is why, with CFE we have promoted, we have recommended that, once the projects that are in progress, and those that are already designed, in the future, are finished, there is a clear bias that most of the new electricity generation projects are renewable energy projects.
That is why we have also set ourselves the goal that 26 percent of all electricity generated in Mexico is renewable energy. And not only does it imply that there are wind turbines to lower carbon emissions, also in homes there can be, precisely, significant savings in carbon emissions.
One, for example. The spotlights and appliances that we have in the houses. For example, refrigerators. Generally the refrigerators that we had, and that we still have in Mexican homes, are refrigerators that pull, as they say, a lot of electricity; among other things, because they no longer keep the cold well and are no longer hermetically closed by their use.
Or, even, for things as interesting as the compressor that brings down the refrigerator and in the back, which is a very complicated thing, are compressors that when they have to start, when the temperature of the refrigerator dropped, start at maximum capacity and pull a lot of electricity.
However, now new refrigerators use other types of compressors, which are, let's say, smart compressors, this means, much more sensitive to temperature, which do not need to wait for the temperature of the refrigerator to drop to start at maximum capacity, but are supplying the air compression barely necessary to keep the temperature of the refrigerator in balance. And that saves them electricity.
What happens is that in our homes, our moms, for example, say: I have this refrigerator that came out great and that we bought it when we got married, 30 years ago or 40 years ago. And they don't want to change it, even though mom spends a lot more on light payments for that refrigerator, and there are more carbon emissions.
For that reason, for example, both for refris and for air conditioning equipment, we launched with FIDE, the Federal Electricity Commission, the Energy Saving Trust, and the Ministry of Energy, a program to change refrigerated ones, which, as you know, was going to be called at the beginning: Program for the Replacement of Appliances, within the Energy Saving Program.
I told the Secretary that this was very complicated, and that's why we gave it another name, which is called: Change your Old for a New one. And so, yes. So, yes, we have already made more than 850 thousand changes of refrigerators and air conditioners that save carbon emissions.
Anyway.
Friends.
There is much that can be done for the environment. For now, here at COP16, what are we going to do?
There are basically two working groups that are already working.
One called: the Long-Term Cooperation Program and another called the Program for what will happen after the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
Basically, what we're going to discuss are adaptation issues.
What are we going to do the countries to, above all, help the poorest countries, to do adaptation works, because they have no money.
Mexico is already doing adaptation works. For example, you remember that three years ago 70 percent of Tabasco was flooded. We had to do adaptation works; that is, boards, bridges, canals, dams, works to contain with vegetation the slopes of the rivers. Anyway.
These are works of adaptation, to adapt to climate change. Work. When done right, they work.
Let me tell you: 2007, when Tabasco flooded, was not the record year of rainfall in Tabasco. The rainiest year in Tabasco was 1955, where the entire state was also flooded.
Let me tell you. This year, 2010, not only did it rain more than in 2007, it rained more than double the record of 1955, and yet, thanks to the adaptation works, Villahermosa was not flooded as on those two occasions.
But adaptation in the world is going to cost a lot of money.
Why.
Because you have to move villages from the riverbeds; you have to make boards, you have to change many things. What we have done has worked. Still, more than 60 people died in Mexico this year as a result of climate change.
Why.
Because as there are no more trees in the hills and as it is raining more, the water goes down at full speed down the slopes and suddenly surprises the people in their houses, which are on the banks of the rivers. It had never been flooded here, people tell us. And people, surprised in their house, drown or are taken away by the river.
In Mexico more than 60 people died, but in Guatemala, more than 1,200 people died this year as a result of climate change, that is what we are going to discuss in adaptation.
In technology. We, because the CFE has an advanced technological program, because Mexico is an open economy, because there are very good engineers, especially those from CFE, for that reason we can make technological adaptations like this, because we also allow specialized investment in the sector. That allows us to bring technology, but many countries in the world, do not have technological capacity. We will also discuss how to transfer technology to those countries.
And then, we have, thanks to the contributions and the payments for services that Mexicans make, that we do, there is the possibility that we will make investments like this, which cost more or less 50 million pesos.
But many countries don't have that money. So, what we are going to do is, also, a fund, which thanks to Mexico's proposal, will probably be called the Green Fund, which will allow resources to be placed in the short and long term, to be able to finance, precisely, technological changes, adaptations and, above all, carbon emission mitigation works.
Anyway. There are many things that will be discussed at COP16.
Now, there are some things, finally, that I want in particular, to say about the organization of this event, apart from the very good news they give us, that it is going to have a spill, here, for the inhabitants of Quintana Roo, of more or less one hundred million dollars, because they are going to come, I do not know how many we have registered, but they came, Secretary. More or less, we have 20 thousand registered to participate in the Convention, plus those who come around all of them.
What are we doing.
First, we are going to supply clean, renewable energy, the headquarters where the conferences are going to be held. This wind turbine is for that. And also in the headquarters hotel hundreds of small solar panels have already been installed to generate clean energy. This is thanks to an environmental cooperation project between Mexico and Italy.
Second. As I said, the trucks that are going to transport people are going to be powered by biodiesel, by clean energy, to transport the delegations. In addition to the biodiesel trucks, which I told you, there are going to be 40 electric vehicles, 17 hybrids, 254 ultra-low sulfur diesel buses, and the 25 biodiesel buses that I told you about. There are also going to be bicycles, which are zero pollutants.
Third. We have reduced the use of raw materials, and energy, in 60 hotels in Cancun, Puerto Morelos, Playa del Carmen and Tulum, through a program to identify and evaluate, technically and economically, the hotels, so that they improve their environmental performance.
Room. During the Conference, a waste recycling program will be carried out. There will be recruitment modules, which will be located in the places where the official meetings and events of the COP are held, as well as in different parts of the City of Cancun.
Fifth. Something very important, and that this is, truly, the significant data of the COP. COP16 is going to be a carbon neutral event. That is, COP16 will be a zero-carbon event, not because it will not consume carbon, but because all the emissions that are made are offset by carbon sequestration projects.
That is, we are going to neutralize the greenhouse gases that are released. For example, in the trip of the Mexican Delegation to this place, before and during the meeting, we will neutralize what remains of the clean emissions of the wind turbine, and of the solar panels, with projects.
And apart from that, we will have agreements, both with CFE and with other generators, to exchange the energy that is already produced clean in Mexico. The truth is that the strength of wind turbines is not here, as Alfredo said.
This is the first wind turbine in the Yucatan Peninsula, but in the State of Oaxaca we have, as I said, more than 500 megawatts of capacity running. We are going to transfer that clean energy, to compensate, precisely, for what is done here.
And we are also going to make a compensation mechanism, or neutralization, which is the Payment of Environmental Services.
Let me explain.
All the emissions that are generated by trips of the Mexican Delegation, and each delegation will be able to do the same at the COP, as well as for the stay, for the events that take place in Cancun, will be neutralized through the purchase of carbon certificates.
The money from the purchase, which we have already made from these certificates, will be used to pay indigenous and peasant communities in Mexico, in areas that are being reforested to do, in addition, greater work of reforestation and maintenance of the forests.
Why they are said to neutralize carbon emissions.
Because when we plant a tree, as that tree grows, that tree is nourished, it is capturing carbon; that is, it is doing the opposite of what hurt the atmosphere, it is sequestering, it is also said, carbon.
And for that reason, if we emit a ton of coal here, to say the least, we need to find somewhere where they capture another ton of coal. And that's what we're going to do at COP16: buy carbon certificates that neutralize COP emissions, here.
This will allow not only to conserve carbon in forest biomass, but to capture it from the atmosphere, as trees grow. Mature trees also preserve the carbon balance in these areas. In addition to other benefits, they absorb, for example, the heat of the sun.
You know that in the shade of the trees, in addition, a change in temperature is generated, but the trees themselves absorb part of the heat of the sun and prevent that heat from staying, let's put it that way, in the atmosphere, in the environment, in the climate.
With this scheme, the Government of Mexico will neutralize the carbon footprint of a large part of the emissions generated by the Convention. And we will promote that each attending delegation buys their carbon certificates right here to neutralize their own participation, including the trip they make from their place of origin to here.
Anyway.
Friends.
All these measures endorse Mexico's firm commitment and our full conviction that it is possible to move towards a new climate regime, without neglecting economic development.
As part of this effort, we are making the necessary technological changes to move towards a broad energy reconversion. In addition to the large hydroelectric and wind infrastructure projects that are underway, we are pushing for alternative energies, such as biodiesel.
Yesterday, I insist, yesterday I inaugurated the first biodiesel manufacturing plant in Mexico, in the State of Chiapas, which is going to supply, precisely, the biodiesel here, in Cancun.
We have methane and biogas projects, the one generated in landfills, which is also already being used in Mexico. Agricultural waste. Right here, in the State of Yucatan, for example, several projects have already been carried out in which the biogas that comes from the waste of pig production, organic waste, that biogas is already being used to generate electricity in the pig farms where they are generated.
And many, many more actions.
The concrete actions we are taking. Also here, in Cancun, for example, several electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles are going to be shown. They are vehicles, for example, that use gasoline, yes, but that when braking the ballast itself, or the brake mechanism itself, with the friction it also generates electricity, which feeds the car, and with which the car when starting, for example, does not use so much gasoline, but starts with another electric motor. Anyway.
It is going to show a vehicle, even, racing, which is fully electric; several technological innovations that will be present here. The developments already made by INFONAVIT in Green Mortgages will be presented.
If a house has, for example, a heater, instead of gas, has a sun heater for water, and has thermal elements of the house, and has energy and water saving faucets, that house, for example, applies to the Green Mortgage, which gives the INFONAVIT, and is a mortgage loan with more money than usual to finance these mortgages.
From next year, by the way, in the middle of next year, all the mortgages that INFONAVIT gives are going to be Green Mortgages. That is, they will condition, precisely, the energy efficiency of the houses. Anyway.
Friends, Mexico, I tell you sincerely, Mexico is leading by example. Although we are a country still with a lot of poverty, a developing country, we are not going to wait for powerful nations, rich nations, to see at what times it occurs to them to worry and act seriously against climate change.
We know that we are a country that is affected by climate change. That hurricanes and floods and tropical storms, like the one that destroyed downtown Monterrey, for example, are already affecting us in our reality.
And that it is the poorest people, those who live on the banks of rivers, who do not have water, and less in the droughts that climate change is generating, who suffer the most from its consequences.
That is why we know that it is time to act and we have begun to act, modestly, if you will, with our commitment to reduce 50 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, which we have voluntarily assumed.
And with these kinds of measures, with what we want to say to the world, it is time to act in favour of nature, it is time to act together against climate change.
So, I sincerely congratulate the people of Cancunenses, because from today this city will become, not only a paradise for tourism, but will begin to be a point, modest, if you will, but an important point at last, of reference and example of the commitment that we Mexicans have, not only with the environment of Mexico, the commitment that we have with the environment, which by definition is a global issue, is an issue of the planet, and that is a commitment, then, that we assume, with all humanity, that in this matter, in that of climate change, it has no border, and affects rich and poor alike.
Congratulations.
Congratulations.
Related Posts:
- Wants president of Mexico Green Fund in 2009
- Calderon and Obama for the Environment
- Objectives of COP16 in Cancun
- COP16 in Cancun
- UBV COP16 – Inauguration of the Wind Turbine at COP16 in Cancun
Authors: Val
