Mexico asks Biden to partner on migration problem

METEPEC, Mexico

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said shared different ideas regarding more sustainable energetic policies at a virtual climate summit on Thursday that had 40 heads of state and government.

He also asked for US President Joe Biden's help to tackle migration in Central America.

Mexico plans to limit fossil fuel use through initiatives to halt the practice of exporting crude oil and buy back gasoline and limit the use of oil to supply internal demand.

He said Mexico is moving to incentivize hydroelectric energies to wean from carbon and fuels to produce electricity.

"The energy that is produced with water is clean and cheap. Hence, we have decided to change old turbines for modern equipment, which will allow us to take advantage of the water from the reservoirs to produce more energy without building new dams and without causing damage," he said.

Lopez Obrador then spoke directly to Biden regarding migration from southern Mexico and Central America, taking the opportunity to propose a solution to the crisis.

Obrador offered his national project, Sowing Life, the "largest reforestation effort in the world," as a way forward.

The program consists of 450,000 male and female farmers who are paid around $250 monthly to plant fruit and timber trees on their lands.

According to the president, the program has yielded 700 million plants of its 1 billion target that will cover 1 million hectares, with a total investment of $1.4 million annually.

"The proposal is that together we expand this program in southeastern Mexico and Central America to plant 3 billion additional trees and generate 1.2 million jobs," he said.

Both governments would oversee the project, with the US financing the expansion to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

Obrador proposed that those enrolled in the program could apply for a temporary working visa in the US after working there for three consecutive years, with the opportunity to apply for permanent residence or dual nationality after working for an additional three or four years.

"Along with the love of nature and the responsibility to inherit a habitable planet to the new generations, universal brotherhood must also prevail." added the president.