On the road to sustainability, the cities of Campeche, Cancun, Chetumal and Merida must face several challenges to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda.
As we have advanced, the metropolitan areas of the Peninsula with the best overall results are the Yucatecan capital with 59.39 percent progress; the Campeche metropolitan area with 56.64 percent, while those of the Caribbean achieved 56.52 percent and 51.89 percent progress in the roadmap to 2030.
In this sense, Goal 9, which proposes building resilient infrastructure, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialization, as well as fostering innovation, showed an overall average progress of 47.69 percent in the fulfillment of this indicator in metropolitan areas.
In the case of the Peninsula, only Merida surpassed the overall average with 53.60 percent progress in 2021, while the other three metropolises were almost 10 percentage points below the average: Cancun with 35.78 percent, Campeche with 34.28 percent and Chetumal with 29.26 percent.
Likewise, the report highlights that the main challenges to advance in goal 9, have to do with the sustainability of the predominant means of public transportation, the number of research centers and the percentage of homes with computer access, an indicator that reflects the level of connectivity that households have to perform tasks that require at least one computer.
Goal 10, Reducing inequalities, aims to progressively increase the income of the poorest population; promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all people; increase equal opportunities, eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and practices; adopt fiscal, wage and social protection policies; and improve the oversight of financial institutions and markets.
In this line, the average progress of this objective is 51.98 percent compliance. Thus, Chetumal (with 63.13 percent), Campeche (with 59.82 percent) and Cancun (with 56.82 percent) were the metropolitan areas that exceeded the average, while Merida ranked at the bottom with 28.41 percent progress.
Among the challenges identified in the report are, on the one hand, gender wage inequality, which constitutes one of the main components of the country’s disparity and represents the greatest challenge; on the other hand, wage inequality.
Goal 11, Sustainable Cities and Communities, which seeks to make urban centers more inclusive, safe and resilient, achieved an overall average of 50.23 percentage points in metropolitan areas. However, none of the metropolises on the Peninsula exceeded the average: Merida with 49.28 percent progress, followed by Campeche with 45.30 percent, Cancun 29.99 percent and Chetumal with 29.99 percent.
In addition, the document highlights that, although these four cities have the greatest challenge in improving air quality, the metropolises of Quintana Roo must improve their air pollution management programs. Not only that, Chetumal has to strive to improve density, accessibility and increase urban green areas.
In general, the report identified as an area of opportunity the level of habitability of a metropolitan area, which refers to the maintenance and creation of green spaces, as these offer multiple environmental services such as the provision of places where the population can develop physical and recreational activities.
“If we consider the recommendation of various studies to offer a minimum of 15 square meters of green areas per inhabitant, the outlook is not encouraging in Mexican metropolitan areas, where the average is 1.17 square meters per inhabitant,” the report notes.
Even, the Sustainable Cities Index points out that the space allocated for green areas in a metropolitan area is around 10 percent of the territory, but the average in the cities evaluated in 2020 was only 0.5 percent, with a downward trend, since in 2015 an average of 0.7 percent was recorded.
Goal 12, on Responsible Consumption and Production, aims to “ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns, so as to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation, through improvements in resource efficiency and the promotion of sustainable lifestyles.“
Therefore, the overall progress of this goal in Mexican cities was 44.95 percentage points; only the capital of Campeche was below the average: Cancun with 69.02 percent progress, Merida with 57.35 percent, Chetumal with 47.59 percent and Campeche with 43.40 percent.
Although Cancun showed the greatest progress in terms of economic units that separate their waste, Campeche and Chetumal face the challenge of reducing the number of kilograms of urban solid waste generated per inhabitant per year.
By the way, the report points out that, in terms of business co-responsibility, on average, 53.61 percent of the companies separate their waste, but only 23.14 percent use recycled materials. This situation points to the need to go deeper in identifying the critical points of the value chains, in order to promote a greater volume of waste recovery and its valorization.
These values are consistent with a poor interest of companies in acquiring recognition for being socially responsible, given that, on average, only 2.9 companies out of every 10 thousand hold this merit.
Objective 13, Climate Action, proposes the adoption of urgent measures to combat climate change and its effects; overall progress was 40.75 percent, which was surpassed by Campeche with 66.67 percent, Cancun with 50.00 percent, Chetumal 41.67 percent, with Merida being the only one below average, with 37.90 percent.
To advance in the fulfillment of goal 13, the report considers “necessary that authorities develop regulatory instruments, action programs, institutions and incentives that define the measures to be followed and cooperation mechanisms; as well as emission reduction commitments, goals for climate risk management and the awareness of society“.
In this context, “the Municipal Climate Change Programs are relevant instruments for the definition of commitments aimed at reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and compounds, and to establish processes that allow the population to adapt to the changes associated with climate change“; Campeche, Cancun, Chetumal, lack these instruments.
Goal 15, Life of terrestrial ecosystems, is focused on sustainably managing forests, combating desertification, halting and reversing land degradation and halting biodiversity loss. The overall progress in the country’s metropolises was 43.99 percent, however, no metropolitan area of the Peninsula reached it: Chetumal with 41.09 percent, Campeche with 40.10 percent, Merida with 40.0 percent and Cancun with 34.41 percent.
In this regard, the report indicates that “actions and public policies to reverse the degradation of ecosystems are not enough” because “the change in land use due to urban growth consumed, on average, 21.1 percent of the land with environmental value (natural vegetation) in the period from 2000 to 2020”.
Goal 16, Peace, justice and strong institutions, aims to: reduce violence and mortality rates, assaults and torture against children; promote the rule of law, fight organized crime, reduce corruption, create effective and transparent institutions that are accountable, guarantee public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms.
According to the Sustainable Cities Index, the overall progress of goal 16 is 71.12 percent, but Caribbean cities showed below average progress: Merida with 92.94 percent, Campeche with 84.05 percent, Chetumal with 66.84 percent and Cancun with 47.23 percent. The problems identified in the report are high homicide rates, the number of attacks on the press and vehicle theft.
Goal 17, Partnerships to Achieve the Goals, has targets in five areas: improving finance, promoting technological development, capacity building, promoting foreign trade, and systemic issues such as regulatory and institutional coherence.
Likewise, the overall progress of this objective is an average of 74.07 percent, which is surpassed by three of the four metropolitan areas of the Peninsula: Cancun with 84.53 percent, Merida with 82.39 percent, Chetumal with 74.91 percent, so that Campeche was placed below the average with 73.50 percent.
It should be mentioned that the Sustainable Cities Index left out objective 14, Underwater Life, which was not measured because there is insufficient information in most of the cities measured; it is also oriented towards reducing marine pollution, managing and protecting marine and coastal ecosystems, minimizing the effects of ocean acidification, regulating fishing activities, conserving areas and increasing the economic benefits derived from marine resources in less developed countries.
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