Montreal, 18/09/2006 – With support from the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) and partners in the United States, Mexico realized its first national inventory of atmospheric air emissions today.
The inventory presents detailed air emissions data for all 32 states and 2,443 municipalities in Mexico. Information is presented on six contaminants that contribute to smog and other air pollution (nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide, ammonia and particulate matter) and groups them by state, municipality and emission source.
Sources covered by the inventory include stationary sources such as industrial facilities, area sources like small industries, on-road and off-road mobile sources such as cars and agricultural machinery, and natural sources like volcanoes.
A national inventory detailing where air emissions come from is a key accomplishment in support of improved air quality management within Mexico and on both sides of its borders. It also provides the public with basic information on the environmental performance of air pollution sources located in, or upwind from, their communities.
The announcement was made at a news conference in Mexico City, where Mexico’s environment minister and CEC Council member José Luise Luege Tamargo was joined by partners from various Mexican states, the Instituto Nacional de Ecología (INE), the Dirección General para la Gestión de Calidad del Aire (the air quality management department of Mexico’s environmental ministry), the Western Governors’ Association, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and the CEC.
“To address the impacts of air pollution on environmental and human health throughout the region requires national emissions inventories and international cooperation,” says Adrián Vázquez, executive director of the CEC. “Today, we are one step closer to realizing that goal.”
Five years ago, the CEC Council—the environment ministers, or equivalent, from Canada, Mexico and the United States—resolved to work towards promoting comparability of air emissions inventory information in North America.
Since then, the CEC has contributed financial support and expertise to the development of the air emissions inventory in Mexico, sponsored workshops involving inventory developers from each Mexican state, and promoted training of state officials on the reporting requirements of the new, mandatory industrial pollution reporting system, the Registro de Emisiones y Transferencia de Contaminantes.
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For more information, please consult the INE web site at www.ine.gob.mx or contact Spencer Tripp at (514) 350-4331.
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