Mexico to voluntarily cut greehouse gas emissions
MEXICO CITY, June 5 (Reuters) - Mexico will voluntarily cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 50 million tonnes a year by 2012, President Felipe Calderon said on Friday.
The cut represents approximately 8 percent of Mexico's emissions, according to the environment ministry.
The country, the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in Latin America, accounts for about 1.5 percent of the world's emissions of greenhouse gases.
Mexico is a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol but is not among the nations obliged to reduce emissions under the treaty.
The emissions cuts will come from more efficient cars and power plants and reductions in gas leaks and flaring by the oil industry, Calderon said.
Mexico's state-run oil industry is a major emitter of greenhouse gases. Emissions jumped 25 percent in 2008 to 54.9 million tonnes due to increased natural gas flaring and venting, according to state oil company Pemex.
Pemex burned off more than 1.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day in 2008 -- enough to serve more than 3.5 million U.S. homes -- due to insufficient gas handling and treatment capacity at its major oil fields.
The company is currently working to reduce flaring to 3 percent of gas production this year by installing new gas handling capacity and plans to spend $2.4 billion through 2012 to cut emissions from offshore platforms. (Reporting by Robert Campbell; Editing by David Gregorio)
