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The Cancun Climate Summit footprint represents a shoe size of 46

The ecological footprint of Mexico is ranked at 58th of 141 countries worldwide. But the carbon footprint is obviously larger.

Consider the following stats:

The Cancun meeting’s carbon footprint was 25,000 metric tons of emissions.(Same as burning 3 million gallons of gasoline or the annual energy output of around 1,250 average U.S. households.)

Compare this to 5,000 tons from Copenhagen and just more than 3,000 tons from the Bali meeting.

Here’s a breakdown of the numbers:

25 heads of state attended.

2,457 air-conditioned rooms were used with double Jacuzzis at the main conference hotel.

$68 million was paid by the Mexican government to host the conference. (The Danish government put up $213 million last year.)

350 days of the year had unsafe air quality in Mexico City in the early 1990s. Now it’s unsafe less than half that time.

And some good news:

The government will nonetheless offset all 25,000 metric tons, purchasing carbon offsets from agricultural projects and paying Mexican farmers an average of $10 for each ton.

The government has installed solar panels on the roof of the Moon Palace resort–the conference’s main venue–that will remain after the conference concludes.

A 1.5 megawatt wind turbine is helping to assure that much of the power used at the Cancun Messe security checkpoint comes from renewable sources.

Almost all the on-the-ground transport in Cancun comes from bio-fuel or hybrid buses.

7 million is the amount in metric tons that Mexico City’s ambitious "Plan Verde" aims to reduce from vehicle emissions by 2012.

Some 10,000 trees have been planted around Cancun

When I was young I learnt this limerick:

"A canner exceedingly canny

One morning remarked to his granny

A canner can can anything he can

But a canner can’t can a can, can he?"

Which I would simply modify as:

But a canner can’t can a can, more so in Cancun can he?

Send your comments to sharad@go-green.ae