Heat wave: the future is now for Mexico, the first developing country to take on global warming.

Viva Mexico! Recently, Mexico made a historic decision to become the first developing country to adopt international standards to track and report greenhouse gases produced by its industries.

When the program begins in January, the nation's estimated 48,000 companies will be asked to follow emission standards set by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, a coalition of 175 global companies, and the World Resources Institute (WRI), an environmental research organization. The two-year project is voluntary and will provide its participants with equipment and training to help calculate and reduce such greenhouse gases as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Some 150 companies worldwide have already accepted the standards, including such global corporate titans as U.S. aluminum giant Alcoa and U.S. chemical leader Dupont.

Mexico's decision couldn't come soon enough. Data provided by 2,000 of the world's most prominent scientists reporting to the United Nations has shown that an increase in greenhouse gases from industry has already increased the Earth's temperature. During the past century, our self-destructive behavior has caused temperatures to rise 0.6 degrees Celsius while sea level has risen several inches. The long-term, projected results of climate change are most alarming: Polar ice will melt, coasts will flood and the sea will continue to rise. As snow melts, drinking water supplies are disrupted. There's damage to agriculture, more frequent tropical storms, and an increase in tropical diseases.

A Mexican government study shows that climate change could modify Mexico's rainfall patterns, change its soil, intensify droughts, decrease fauna and flora, expand deserts and reduce forests. "Mexico is a country with an enormous vulnerability to potential climate change" former environment secretary Julia Carabias has said.

Like most nations other than the United States, Mexican policymakers have long disavowed the "bi-ostitutes," biologists employed by corporations who insist that global warming is a myth. They are well aware that the science behind the trend is clear.

In the United States, the Pentagon's report on global warming, while ignoring the U.S. National Academy of Sciences study on the subject (quite negative), nevertheless identifies climate change as a national-security threat. U.K Prime Minister Tony Blair's top science adviser has characterized global warming as a greater future threat than terrorism. Yet the White House refuses to take the issue seriously. Most U.S. companies have done little to reduce their emissions and President George W. Bush has steadfastly refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 United Nations agreement that calls for the 38 industrialized nations to reduce their greenhouse gases below 1990 levels. Twenty-five Latin American and Caribbean countries have ratified it, including Mexico.

"Mexico's leadership is both particularly important and especially encouraging, in the face of the stubborn refusal of the current United States administration to recognize or address, let alone take leadership, on solving one of the great problems to confront humanity in the 21st century," WRI president Jonathan Lash said at the launch of the Mexico project.

That's because Mexico is the world's 14th-largest producer of greenhouse gases, second in Latin America only to Brazil. According to the WRI, emissions in Mexico equal 1.4 tons per person, compared with 6.6 tons per person in the United States--the world's biggest contributor to global warming.

Eco-efficient. Mexico's program will be a tough sell for the majority of the nation's companies, which are small or medium-sized. Many executives don't see environmental regulations as a priority, though eco-efficiency would reduce their costs in the long run. Only government incentives such as tax breaks and grants is likely to change their minds.

But, when the program ends in 2006, I hope that Mexico continues its regional leadership by ending its dependence on fossil fuels. Many economists agree that investment in energy-saving technologies in waste management, agriculture and transport and renewable energy sources such as hydrogen fuel cells, wind and solar power not only create jobs but more wealth in poorer nations than almost any other economic sector.

For now, though, the Mexican program is a breath of fresh air, and a model for other Latin American countries in taking concrete steps to confront global warming and produce cleaner air and a healthier populace.

COMMENTS? WRITE: [e-mail]