The environmental goods and services industry consists of activities which produce goods and services to measure, prevent, limit, minimize and correct environmental damage to water, air and soil, as well as problems related to waste, noise and eco systems.

      This includes cleaner technologies, products and services that reduce environmental risk and minimize pollution and resource use. The total market size for environmental products and services in Mexico at the end of 2003 was over $7 billion, of which engineering services are over 15 percent. The market for this sector is expected to grow at seven percent per year, from 2003 to 2006.

Overview

      Over the past few decades, Mexico has experienced rapid economic growth. Despite several serious economic crises, Mexico’s real gross domestic product (GDP) grew 205 percent between 1971 and 2001. While this economic expansion succeeded in raising average incomes for Mexico’s growing population, inadequate attention to pollution controls and infrastructure considerations led to significant environmental degradation.

            Though there had been public health elements to previous legislation, Mexico only began to seriously address environmental protection in the late 1980s and 1990s. The first comprehensive environmental bill, the General Law of Ecological Balance and Environmental Protection (LGEEPA), was enacted in 1988. In 1996, the law was amended to make sustainable development an explicit concern of the federal government. Mexico has given principal responsibility for environmental policy to the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), although important enforcement duties are delegated to state and local governments...

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