Notes from the Fifth Annual Workshop on Mexico

After the long trip to Ixtapan de la Sal in the States of Mexico, two hours from Mexico City, the participants, some of whom had come from as far away as Switzerland, were pleased to hear Nobel Laureate Professor Mario Molina begin the conference on a light note, following the welcoming remarks from government officials.

"The formal part of this conference is over," announced Professor Molina as he loosened his shirt and removed his tie. After an ice-breaking laugh, most of the participants followed suit.

Proaire Panel discussion: from left to right: Cesar Reyna, Victor Hugo Páramo, Carlos Santos-Burgoa, Francisco Barnés, Adolfo Mejía, Carlos Sandoval, and Adrián Fernández. Moderator: Mario Molina. (Photo provided by CAM) Please click to browse the workshop photo gallery.

It is the rare scientist who can command the attention of a room full of such powerful men and women. But the levity of the moment did not undercut the importance of why this group of policy makers, scientists, and students had gathered together.

The Fifth Annual Workshop on Mexico City Air Quality, organized by Dr. Luisa Molina of MIT, in conjunction with the Metropolitan Environmental Commission (Comisión Ambiental Metropolitana or CAM) had before it an almost unthinkably difficult task: improving the air quality in Mexico City, the world's largest, and arguably one of the most polluted, megalopolis while retaining economic growth.

Participants from US academic institutions including the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), Boston University, Emory University, and MIT, as well as the US EPA, the California Air Resources Board, Aerodyne Research, and US Northeast State for Coordinated Air Use Management. International participants included colleagues from Swiss Federal Polytechnic Institute in Zurich and Lausanne, our partner from the Alliance for Global Sustainability (AGS).

Mexican participants could count among their ranks academics from El Colegio de México, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM), Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México (ITESM), Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, and Uiversidad de las Americanas-Puebla; government agencies including member institutions of CAM, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública (INSP), Secretaría de Energia, Instituto Mexicano del Petróleo (IMP), Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), and industrial organizations including Asociación Mexicana de la Industria Automotriz and Consejo Nacional de Industriales Ecologistas. The gathering provided an opportunity for research groups to present and discuss their work on issues ranging from atmospheric science to transportation modeling, to debate the provisions of the new Proaire III pollution control guidelines, and, time allowing, to enjoy one of the world-famous spas in Ixtapan de la Sal.

Optimism, questions dominate Proaire presentation

Dr. Adolfo Mejía, Technical Secretary of CAM, headed off the first plenary session, entitled "Implementation of Proaire 2001-2010: Opportunities and Challenges." His keynote address touched on the guidelines and goals established in Proaire III, which address many of the aims that had not been achieved with the first two documents. As expected for a city where nearly 80% of emissions are from transportation and mobile sources, many of the measures focus on traffic and automobile controls, including inspection and maintenance, fleet renewal, and stricter standards. Other provisions focus on public health, conservation, and emissions from non-mobile sources.

Regulatory framework and political feasibility are issues of note – areas that present some of the greatest challenges to a comprehensive solution to the problem. An educational initiative, introduced by Dr. Luisa Molina, is also a core part of the program.

Other presenters during the first plenary session discussed topics related to Proaire, including PEMEX's production of a low-sulfur gasoline and its introduction of alternative fuels such as compressed natural gas (CNG), the renewal of the taxi and bus fleets, controlling emissions from industrial sources, and methods of financing the new initiatives.

During the panel discussion, moderated by Professor Molina, the conference participants expressed guarded optimism for the proposals, while questioning why many of the provisions that had been included in the first two documents had not been realized. It became clear that implementation of Proaire III would be a challenge. All agreed, however, that the groundwork had been laid for realistic, long-term goals for improving air quality and hence public health in the Mexico City.

Research groups demonstrate progress, need for more information

The following four plenary sessions focused on technical aspects of the air pollution problem, including energy and climate change, health impacts, transportation and urban development, and atmospheric modeling.

Dr. Francisco Barnés, the Sub-Secretary of Energy (for Energy Policy), delivered the Workshop's second keynote address, "Energy and the Environment: Historical Evolution and Perspectives," in which he documented the challenges and achievements of energy policy in Mexico and North America. Much of the energy session, moderated by Ing. Carlos Mena, was devoted to discussing cooperation between the United States and Mexico, and focused on formulating a global energy policy. Speakers included the US EPA attaché to Mexico, Mr. Lawrence Sperling, who addressed coordination of Mexican and US policies regarding global climate change.

During the Health Effects session moderated by Dr. Mauricio Hernández of INSP, researchers from UNAM, INSP, the Harvard School of Public Health, and Emory University presented their findings on the linkage between emissions and quantifiable effects on the population, focusing on PM2.5 particles. Speakers acknowledged a lack of sufficient data, but nonetheless presented studies with foci as broad as students in Mexico City and truckers in the United States.

Professor Joseph Sussman of MIT moderated the session on Transportation and Urban Planning, which included a presentation from Dr. Alberto Ayala of the California Air Resources Board on his study of vehicle emissions in California, and a discussion by Dr. T.R. Lakshmanan of Boston University on the comparisons between Mexico City and Delhi. Some of the session's debate focused on the proposed construction of a second level on the Periferico and Viaducto roadways in Mexico City – a controversial measure which some claimed would increase rather than decrease congestion. Professor Sussman also presented his ideas on representing Mexico City as a Complex, Large-scale, Integrated, Open System (CLIOS).

The final session on Emissions Inventory, Atmospheric Measurements and Modeling, moderated by Dr. Luisa Molina, included a presentation by Dr. Charles Kolb of Aerodyne Research, a company with a mobile laboratory scheduled to perform detailed emissions measurements in the MCMA as part of the MCP's field measurement campaign. Other presenters, including Ing. Rafael Ramos and Ing. Jorge Sarmiento of GDF-SMA, described the progress in modeling and data gathering, but emphasized the gap that existed between the information that was needed to make accurate predictions and what was available.

From there, the conference was divided into smaller breakout sessions, focusing on health effects, transportation and urban development, atmospheric measurements and modeling, and integrated scenario analysis. The presentation by the MIT scenario analysis team provided an overview of a year of research and modeling, during which different strategies for air quality management were considered across future stories or scenarios. All of the smaller groups provided better opportunities for networking between organizations and for more detailed presentations and discussion than was possible in the larger sessions.

The participants reconvened on Thursday morning for the final plenary session that included reports from the breakout sessions and future research agenda; education and outreach activities introduced by Dr. Luisa Molina and include the participation of Amelia Garza, a high school teacher from ITESM; and the activities of the Mexican Research and Development Network on Air Quality in Large Cities (RED) summarized by Jorge Bustamante of the US-Mexico Foundation for Science.

On Thursday afternoon, after four days of nine-to-nine sessions of science and policy debate, the weary participants bid goodbye to the beautiful valley of Ixtapan. Communication networks had been established, results validated, and new questions posed. Many stayed in Mexico to do more research, and others took a few days off to enjoy the sun.

Confident in a job well done, Mario and Luisa Molina and the other organizers have already begun to plan next year's conference.

Reported by Jed Horne, with contributions from A. Mostashari.

In the words of the participants...

"As this was my first involvement with the project, the January workshop helped me understand the institutional context of air quality problems in Mexico City. This is why participation by representatives of various levels of government was helpful. An excellent overview of emissions scenarios was also provided."
-Bill Anderson, Boston University

"The Mexico City January Workshop was a great opportunity to learn about the complexities of a megalopolis. For three days we discussed about the city's current situation, it's potential improvements, ongoing projects and their relationship to human health. We got the opportunity to interact with officials and researchers from Mexico City and establish collaboration agreements"
-Alejandro Bracamontes, MIT

"One of the most important achievements of the workshop was that we had a chance to sit together with Mexican collaborators and discuss the current research status and propose future research recommendation."
-Yeora Chae, MIT

"At the 5th Mexico-US Workshop on Mexico City Air Quality the scenarios team presented their research to-date which combined the group's bottom up modeling of activities and emissions reduction options, with long-term uncertainties or "Future Stories" regarding possible growth paths for the Mexico City Metropolitan Area. The MIT scenarios team is now working more closely with colleagues in Mexico to refine both the Future Stories and the characterization of air quality options for future evaluation."
-Stephen R. Connors, MIT

"The workshop was very interesting. It covered many different topics so we were able to learn from each other. Education should be a very important part of the project because it is the fastest and maybe the only way to achieve sustainable development."
-Amelia Garza, Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey

"The January workshop provided a unique oportunity to plan collaborative projects with researchers from different fields and institutions. It provided the bases to integrate our research needs and agendas in order to solve problems by using a multidisciplinary approach."
-Fernando Holguin, Emory University

"I believe that the sessions related to health impacts were quite interesting. Additionally to presenting new and important results, a future research agenda was defined as well as a schedule. This may lead to a more consistent development of this area of the project."
-Maria Eugenia Ibarrara, Universida da las Americas

"The plenary sessions and workgroups scheme allows, on one hand, to obtain first hand information from the speakers, and on the other hand, to participate in discussions with experts that make important proposals and questions that must be taken into account for the MCMA Air Quality Program."
- Hilda Martinez Salgado, Instituto Nacional del Ecología

"I feel that the interest in the educational activities has increased a lot within the group. Several professors from MIT, Harvard and Mexico had shown interest in participating. After the education presentation, Ms. Martha Hilda Conzález, Secretary of Ecology of the Estado de México, told me that she was very interested in this activity. About modeling, I feel that now we have a list of questions that can be addressed and linked with other activities in the group. The session was very rich in comments and allowed the participants to identify controversial issues, like the realibility of the emission inventory and the size of the domain, that must be studied to obtain better understanding of the air quality problem and its regional impact."
-Gerardo Manuel Mejía, Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey

"I think that the January workshop allowed the researchers and scientists to get in touvh with the air quality managers, which is very important as the managers translate the findings and results in concrete actions in their daily tasks, and on the other hand, the scientists receive an input from the air quality policy makers and with that they evaluate the real uses of their research."
- Victor Hugo Páramo, Gobierno del Distrito Federal

"I consider the January Workshop very productive since it gathered most of the people working on air quality management in Mexico and give us the opportunity for four full days to share direct experiences and to know about the current work of each one in a quiet environment away from the daily busy office."
-Rafael Ramos-Villegas, Gobierno del Distrito Federal

"The workshop provided the opportunity to renew existing contacts and make new ones for continued modeling efforts. It also allowed us to move beyond the quantitative modeling efforts and discuss less well-defined issues such as policy approaches and societa lissues."
-Kellyn Roth, MIT

The most important achievements we got on the last January Workshop, at least on the Atmospheric Science group, is that both Mexican and US teams are more mature on modeling the air quality and a more robust group seems to be growing up. Now we have experts on meteorology that will allow us to improve scenarios to better understand how air pollutants affect the Mexico City air quality and its effects outside the basin. Further improvements on coupling meteorology and photochemical models are required, but a close coordination is also needed.
-Gustavo Sosa, Instituto Mexicano del Petróleo

"The development of a extended set of professional relationships with specialists in Mexico and especially the EM was one of the major accomplishments in this workshop"
-Joseph Sussman, MIT

" I think there were great scientific discussions in the sessions, and all of the set will help us to improve the results of our project. After all, the gathering of so many investigators interested in a common field is very helpful."
-Miguel Zavala, MIT

"We are getting to the point where the collaboration among the Mexican and US researchers can be more results-oriented. The workshop was a good opportunity to meet and connect with other researchers who are working on related areas, and to learn about their work."
-Chizuro Aoki, MIT

US- Mexico workshops organized by the MIT's Integrated Program on Urban Regional and Global Air Pollution has played an important role in bringing together the Mexican and US researchers working in the area of Air pollution. This has also led to capacity building in Mexico, which was evident in the excellent quality of presentations during the workshop. In my opinion, there has been significant improvement in our understanding of the air pollution in the MCMA and the role that various sources play in emissions.
- Samudra Vijay, MIT

"Greatest and most diverse attendance. Fresher and interesting research on health impacts and modeling. Intense discussion on new Proaire measures"
-Alejandro Villegas-Lopez, MIT