John Ashton, FCO Special Representative for Climate Change visited Mexico, 28-29 April 2008.

John met core climate change contacts in the Environment Ministry and Foreign Affairs Ministry as well as the President's Office, Finance and Economic Ministries and a range of parliamentarians with key positions in the Energy and Environment Committees. He had dinner with a mix of core contacts as well as those newer to the climate change issues. He spread key messages to the press, in interviews before and during his visit, and held a round table breakfast with businessmen at the “Club de Industriales” in Mexico City. Several of the key contacts that John met are, of course, Chevening alumni!

On the international climate change negotiations, John argued that we couldn't afford to adopt an “after you” approach, as has often been the case in international trade negotiations. He saw the biggest fault line in the negotiations as between the UK/EU group who believe that developed countries need to make binding commitments regardless of the actions of emerging economies, and other industrialised countries who will only make binding commitments once they have assurances that the emerging economies will also make emissions cuts. He also commended the excellent co-operation that exists between the UK and Mexico in the international negotiations and the constructive position that Mexico has taken in international fora, such as the G8G5 and UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change).

John also spoke about the imperative of a “transformational change” to tackle climate change. Business needs to be persuaded that first movers will gain competitive advantage in a low carbon economy. He talked about the scale of the challenge, citing China's intention to build 97 new airports and dealing with 20,000 new cars joining Chinese roads very day. He also noted that China's main industrial lands are on low lying coastal plains which will be vulnerable to just a one meter rise in sea levels. He cited the CBI report of December 2007, where UK business leaders called on the UK government to provide regulatory certainty and to address climate change urgently as the main risk to business. There was an enthusiastic response from the business community in Mexico. John also conducted a number of press interviews, both before and during his visit.