Mexico City Receives Payment for BRT Carbon Mitigation
by Eliza Barclay, Nomad on 03. 6.08
In recent months, we've noted that two Mexican companies, Pemex and Cemex, are looking for ways to mitigate their carbon dioxide emissions under the Kyoto Protocol and get paid for it.
For the second year in a row, Mexico City's Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, known here as the MetroBus, curbed the emission of 38,210 tons of carbon dioxide by replacing 368 dirty buses and offering motorists a reliable and safe transport option up and down the city's main thoroughfare Insurgentes. The MetroBus has run on clean-burning ultra low sulfur diesel fuel since its inception in 2005.
MetroBus earned the city 200,000 Euros (US$307,000) from the Spanish Carbon Fund, an initiative of the Spanish government and World Bank to promote and reward the use of cleaner technologies in developing countries under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism. According to Guillermo Calderón Aguilera, director of MetroBus, the money will be used to build bike parking at MetroBus stations and the first "ecological" station with a solar panel installation.
In addition to the MetroBus project, the Spanish Carbon Fund has also invested in projects in China, Chile, Mali, Egypt and Uruguay and two renewable energy projects in other parts of Mexico.:: Via La Jornada (Spanish link)
