Climate and Development

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Characterizing the climate issue context in

Mexico: reporting on climate change in Mexican
newspapers, 1996–2009

Simone Pulver & Jaime Sainz-Santamaría

To cite this article: Simone Pulver & Jaime Sainz-Santamaría (2017): Characterizing the climate
issue context in Mexico: reporting on climate change in Mexican newspapers, 1996–2009, Climate
and Development, DOI: 10.1080/17565529.2017.1318737

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2017.1318737

Published online: 29 Apr 2017.

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Climate and Development, 2017
https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2017.1318737

RESEARCH ARTICLE
Characterizing the climate issue context in Mexico: reporting on climate change in Mexican
newspapers, 1996–2009
Simone Pulvera* and Jaime Sainz-Santamaríab
a
Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA; bCentro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE),
Aguascalientes, Mexico City, Mexico
(Received 2 September 2014; accepted 17 March 2017)

Mexico stands out as an exception in the climate policy arena. In 2012, the Mexican government legislated a long-term
greenhouse gas emissions reduction target, a feat which other large emerging economies (and many industrialized
countries) have not been able to match. An analysis of newspaper coverage of climate change in Mexico from 1996 to
2009 offers insight on the issue context within which Mexico pursued its unilateral action. Like in many developing
countries, climate change news coverage in Mexico increased steadily over the 15-year study period, with a significant
increase in attention to the issue in 2007. Initially, news coverage of climate change in Mexico was dominated by
framings tying climate change to weather patterns and adverse impacts at national and sub-national levels. As news
coverage of the climate issue matured, there was an increase in frames linking climate change to domestic economic and
energy concerns. A review of the secondary literature on climate change news coverage in other countries in the Global
South suggests this domestic focus, in discussions both of climate impacts and of greenhouse gas emissions drivers, is
unusual and may offer some insight into the antecedents of Mexico’s climate policy leadership.
Keywords: climate change; Mexico; climate policy; communication

The 2015 United Nations climate negotiations in Paris
marked a shift in the international climate regime, from a
top-down treaty approach centred on emissions cuts in
industrializing countries to a bottom-up approach with
globally shared responsibility for climate change mitiga-
tion. Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, both industrialized
and developing countries are required to set “Nationally
Determined Contributions” (NDCs) to global greenhouse
gas (GHG) emissions reduction goals (Clémençon, 2016;
Davenport, 2015). This shift from a top-down to a
bottom-up approach in the international politics of
climate change requires a parallel shift in scholarship on
climate action. The national politics of setting NDCs, in
both industrialized and developing countries, come to the
fore. Our analysis contributes to this new research agenda
by examining the national context in which the Mexican
government developed its GHG reduction commitments.
The Mexico case should be of particular interest to
climate policy scholars because of the country’s position
as a leader among developing nations in passing domestic
climate legislation (Pulver, 2013). Mexico was the first
developing country to legislate a long-term national GHG
emissions reduction target. In 2012, under the General
Law on Climate Change (Ley General de Cambio Climá-
tico), Mexico’s government set itself the aspirational
target of reducing national GHG emissions by 30% from
a business as usual (BAU) scenario by 2020 and by 50%
by 2050, using year 2000 as a baseline (Vance, 2012).
Building on this law, Mexico was also the first developing
country to submit a plan detailing its “Intended Nationally
Determined Contribution” in advance of the Paris climate
negotiations. Mexico’s NDC commits the country to
peaking its GHG emissions by 2026 (Friedman, 2015).
By comparison, China’s and India’s much less ambitious
NDC pledges focus on carbon intensity rather than absolute
emissions reductions (Climate Action Tracker, 2016).
It is important to note that Mexico’s leadership position
on climate change, when compared to its peer group of
developing countries, is in terms of international pledges
and domestically legislated commitments. In terms of
cumulative CO2 emissions, Mexico ranks third among
developing countries, behind China, and India, and its
GHG reduction initiatives have not yet led to an alteration
of its GHG emissions trajectory. Between 1995 and 2012,
per capita CO2 emissions (excluding land-use change and
forestry), increased from 3.28 t CO2 per capita to 3.81 t

*Corresponding author. Email: pulver@es.ucsb.edu

© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

2 S. Pulver and J. Sainz-Santamaría
CO2 per capita, and one emissions scenario, based on the
country’s historical GHG emissions trajectory, predicts
steadily increasing emissions through 2050 (WRI, 2016).
Nevertheless, at the level of commitments, Mexico’s
GHG reduction pledges are some of the most ambitious
in the developing world (Climate Action Tracker, 2016).
Our research investigates the issue context in which the
Mexican government developed its climate frameworks
and targets and asks if there are unique features of the
climate issue context in Mexico that contribute to an expla-
nation of the country’s climate policy leadership. The
analysis adds to an emerging body of scholarship on the
domestic politics of climate change, both legislative and
cultural, in developing countries (Held, Roger, & Nag,
2013). We track the climate issue context in Mexico
through an analysis of news coverage of climate change
in prestige Mexican newspapers from 1996 to 2009, exam-
ining patterns in newspaper coverage of the climate issue,
the thematic content of climate-related news articles, the
political scale of coverage, and the key climate policy
issues that generated public debate. The research is based
on an agenda-building model of the relationship between
issue prominence and media attention (Behr & Iyengar,
1985; Dearing & Rogers, 1996; Sheafer & Weimann,
2005). In our analysis, newspaper coverage plays an inter-
pretive function, mirroring international, national and local
events and debates but is not itself a driver of policy atten-
tion. The 1996–2009 study period allows for an examin-
ation of the antecedents of Mexico’s climate policy
leadership, spanning from the emergence of general
public interest in the climate issue in the mid-1990s to
the country’s first major public indication of international
climate policy leadership in 2009, when the Mexican gov-
ernment announced it would host the 2010 round of the UN
climate negotiations in Cancun.
The data on news coverage of climate change in
Mexico demonstrate that, like in many developing
countries, attention to climate change in Mexico increased
steadily over the 15-year study period, with a significant
increase in attention to the issue in 2007. In the early
years, a significant fraction of climate-related articles
focused on local and national weather patterns and ecologi-
cal impacts. As news coverage of the climate issue
matured, there was an increase in articles discussing
climate change in the context of domestic economic and
energy concerns. A review of the secondary literature on
climate change news coverage in other countries in the
Global South suggests this domestic focus, in discussions
both of climate impacts and of GHG emissions drivers, is
unusual and may offer some insight into the antecedents
of Mexico’s climate policy leadership.
This article follows a five-part structure. In the next
section, we review the literature on climate change media
studies in the Global South. We then provide an overview
of the evolution of climate policy in Mexico, introducing
the reader to Mexico’s climate policy exceptionalism.
The third section describes the research methodology. In
the fourth section, we present the results of our analysis
of climate-focused newspaper coverage in Mexico from
1996 to 2009, followed by a concluding discussion.
Newspaper coverage of climate change in the Global
South
Media studies of climate change have made important
contributions to understanding the trajectories of climate
debates in various national contexts. A useful lens for ana-
lysing this body of scholarship is the distinction between
agenda-building versus agenda-setting models of media
in policy and politics. Under an agenda-building model,
real-world events and the worsening of a given situation
are presumed to drive media attention (Behr & Iyengar,
1985; Dearing & Rogers, 1996; Sheafer & Weimann,
2005). In contrast, an agenda-setting model assigns the
media a causal role in influencing public opinion on
what issues are considered important (Mccombs &
Shaw, 1972). Analyses of media coverage of climate
change can be classified as relying on either an agenda-
building or an agenda-setting model, although in practice,
the two perspectives often intersect. The distinction
between agenda-building and agenda-setting models of
the media’s role in climate politics is particularly relevant
to analysing media coverage of climate change in the
Global South. The majority of studies analysing climate
media coverage in developing countries rely on an
agenda-building model. When it occurs, agenda-setting
by newspapers in the Global South tends to be a function
of the lack of capacity within the media. In contrast,
agenda-setting studies in industrialized country contexts
build on previously existing research in the agenda-build-
ing vein and tend to emphasize the media’s role in promot-
ing scientific controversy about climate change.
Media analyses of climate change in the Global South
are a recent development. Only in the last five years has
attention turned to analysing coverage of climate change
by news outlets in developing countries, and as a result
there remain many countries about which there is no infor-
mation. In their review, Schmidt, Ivanova, and Schäfer
(2013) catalogue 41 studies that assess issue attention to
climate change through newspaper coverage. Of these, 28
focus on industrialized countries, while only 9 analyse
media coverage in countries in the Global South (Bangla-
desh, Chile, China, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru and
South Korea). Likewise, Broadbent et al.’s (2016) com-
parative analysis of newspaper coverage of climate
change in 17 countries includes only 6 developing
countries (Brazil, China, India, Mexico, South Korea and
Taiwan). The developing countries included in both
studies have some commonalities. In particular, the large
emerging economies and those countries with English-

language newspapers tend to get most attention. News cov-
erage of climate change in India, in particular, has garnered
a fair amount of interest (Billett, 2010; Boykoff, 2010;
Jogesh, 2012).
Studies that analyse the news share of articles mention-
ing climate change as a percentage of total newspaper
articles are an example of the agenda-building perspective.
The goal of these large-scale comparative studies is to
uncover commonalities and variation in attention to the
climate change issue across national contexts. A key
finding of such research is that both policy decisions and
weather events tend to dictate peaks in climate change
news coverage, with the former as the most consistent pre-
dictor (Boykoff & Mansfield, 2008; Broadbent et al., 2016;
Schmidt et al., 2013). Coverage tends to peak during the
annual rounds of the UN climate negotiations (Chubb &
Bacon, 2010). Media attention to climate change around
the world rose significantly in 2006/2007, in response to
the release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change’s (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report, the awarding
of the Nobel Peace Prize to Al Gore and the IPCC, and the
Bali round of the UN climate negotiations (Schmidt et al.,
2013).
Large-scale comparative news share studies have had
the benefit of expanding the number and diversity of devel-
oping countries for which media coverage of climate
change is analysed. However, to accommodate breadth in
the number of countries included, these analyses have a
limited focus on issue attention. A more in-depth approach
would be to examine the narrative framings of climate
policy issues (Macnamara, 2005). In the Global South, a
particular focus of policy narrative research has been to dis-
tinguish between domestic versus international content and
framing of articles addressing climate change. Most such
studies find that international dynamics come to fore. In
particular, characterizations of responsibility for GHG
emissions tend to have a strong international dimension.
Newspaper coverage in developing countries identifies
industrialized countries as those who have caused (and
thus need to mitigate) climate change (Billett, 2010;
Tolan, 2007). More surprisingly, climate impacts were
also frequently reported at the international level, at least
initially. In the 1990s and early 2000s, there were few
local climate impact studies focused on developing
countries that could serve as the basis for reporting. As a
result, news coverage relied on international scientific
reports (Tolan, 2007). However, with increasing domestic
scientific capacity and local awareness of climate
impacts, domestic concerns began to receive greater promi-
nence in media reports. For example, the 2006 publication
of research by a Chinese national academic institute on
likely domestic climate change impacts started a pattern
of linking international reports on climate impacts to
local concerns in Chinese newspapers (Tolan, 2007). Like-
wise, Billett’s (2010) analysis of climate change in the
Climate and Development 3
Indian English-language press documented that media cov-
erage of climate risk and impacts focused primarily on sites
within India’s borders.
Explanations for the prominence of international
dynamics and content in news coverage of climate
change in the Global South rely on both agenda-building
and agenda-setting models of the media. The emphasis
on international responsibility in GHG mitigation is con-
sistent with an agenda-building perspective of the media’s
role. The primary policy stance of most large developing
countries has been that the Global North needs to demon-
strate leadership in GHG mitigation (Held et al., 2013),
and one would expect this perspective to be reproduced
in news coverage. However, agenda-setting also plays a
role. Due to a lack of journalistic capacity in many devel-
oping countries, newspapers inadvertently shape news cov-
erage of climate change and thus the climate agenda.
Research identifies lack of resources, lack of access to
information, an unsupportive editorial environment, and
lack of training as key obstacles to effective reporting
(Saleh, 2012). For example, Shanahan (2009) citing Fahn
(2008) recounts that only 9% of journalists registered to
attend the 2007 climate negotiations in Bali represented
non-industrialized countries, excluding those from the
host country, and none hailed from the least developed
countries. As a result, news coverage of climate change
in the Global South tends to rely heavily on content pre-
pared by international wire services (Takahashi &
Meisner, 2013). Batta, Ashong, and Bashir (2013) find
that 63% of climate change coverage in Nigerian newspa-
pers is foreign-sourced content. Studies in China, Jamaica
and Zambia estimate 90% of domestic media coverage is
based on foreign content, retrieved from international
wire services. The extent to which articles on climate
change are locally sourced or are reprints provided by inter-
national wire services has implications for article content.
The latter are often reproduced without reference to local
context (Shanahan, 2009; see Miah, Kabir, Koike, &
Akther, 2011 as the exception; Batta et al., 2013), are less
likely to focus on conflict (Dotson, Jacobson, Kaid, &
Carlton, 2012; Gordon, Deines, & Havice, 2010), are
more likely to emphasize mitigation of greenhouse gas
emissions rather than adaptation to climate impacts (Batta
et al., 2013; Takahashi & Meisner, 2013; Yun, Ku, Park,
& Han, 2012), and tend to point to the international arena
as the source of solutions to the climate problem (Billett,
2010; Gordon et al., 2010).
Differences in capacity across industrialized and devel-
oping countries also affect how climate science is portrayed
in the news media (Stamm, Clark, & Eblacas, 2000). Such
research also ascribes an agenda-setting role to the media.
Lack of scientific capacity by reporters can perpetuate
factual errors in reporting on climate change (Bell, 1994).
Rules governing reporting underemphasize uncertainties
(Boykoff, 2007b) and overemphasize balance in reporting
4 S. Pulver and J. Sainz-Santamaría
scientific controversies (Boykoff & Boykoff, 2004).
Finally, coverage of climate science can be influenced by
powerful constituencies (Anderson, 2011; Boykoff &
Yulsman, 2013; Dispensa & Brulle, 2003; Greenberg,
Knight, & Westersund, 2011). Issues of factual inaccuracy
are a primary concern related to news coverage of climate
change in developing countries. Research on media cover-
age in Mexico, for example, documents an increasing trend
in ascribing particular hurricane events to climate change,
without acknowledging the uncertainties of such linkages
(Mansfield, 2007). Likewise a Korean study found that a
majority of articles lacked precise data and/or used incor-
rect terminology when discussing climate change (Lee,
Hong, Kim, Hong, & Lee, 2013). Of particular interest in
industrialized country-settings has been the media’s contri-
bution to the rise in climate skepticism among publics,
initially in the US, but spreading to the UK, Australia
and Germany (Boykoff, 2007a; Elsasser & Dunlap, 2013;
Engels, Hüther, Schäfer, & Held, 2013; Grundmann &
Scott, 2014; Olausson, 2009). To date, climate skepticism
has not been a prominent issue in news coverage of
climate change in the Global South. The scientific basis
of climate change has been mostly uncontroversial in
developing country contexts, with newspaper coverage
reporting on the consensus opinion of the IPCC (Shanahan,
2009). For example, Billett’s (2010) analysis of climate
change newspaper coverage in India finds that characteriz-
ations of climate science in English-language, elite Indian
newspapers hue closely to IPCC reports.
Finally, a fourth focus of media studies of climate
change has sought to link news coverage to climate
policy outcomes. Firmly grounded in an agenda-setting
perspective, these studies have been conducted only in
industrialized country-settings and initial results of research
are mixed. Xinsheng Liu, Lindquist, and Vedlitz (2011),
focusing on news coverage and congressional attention to
climate change in the US between 1969 and 2005, found
no spillover across the two venues. In contrast, analysing
predictors of climate bills at the state level, Dolšak and
Houston (2014) find that newspaper coverage favouring
policy action is associated with increased legislative
activity. Both studies highlight the complexity of the politi-
cal processes that lead to legislative action, with media cov-
erage playing only one part.
Our analysis of newspaper coverage of climate change
in Mexico is based on an agenda-building model of the
role of the media in public policy. We analyse news cover-
age to elucidate the climate issue context in Mexico and not
because the media was a driver of the political and legisla-
tive agenda that resulted in the General Law on Climate
Change. Nevertheless, understanding the climate issue
context in Mexico matters, because it constituted the
terrain within which the Mexican government developed
its pioneering climate policy targets and frameworks. Our
research contributes to the literature on media coverage of
climate change in the Global South by adding an in-depth
analysis of the climate issue context in a large developing
country that came to prioritize domestic climate action.
The Mexico case serves as a counter example to the domi-
nant narrative of other large developing countries, commu-
nicated in policy documents and in the press, of delaying
domestic action until large industrializing countries have
done their part (Billett, 2010; Boykoff & Yulsman, 2013;
Held et al., 2013). Moreover, our in-depth focus on news
coverage of Mexico’s climate policy agenda and of
climate-related topics of public debate complements more
quantitatively focused analyses of climate newspaper cov-
erage in Mexico (Gordon et al., 2010) and of Mexico in
comparative perspective (Broadbent et al., 2016; Schmidt
et al., 2013; Schreurs, Clark, Dickson, & Jäger, 2001).
Climate change politics and policy in Mexico
Like many large developing economies, Mexico is both
vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and a contribu-
tor to GHG emissions. In terms of impacts, drought and
desertification pose threats to food production and liveli-
hoods in the northern and central regions of the country.
Coastal areas, particularly in southern tropical Mexico,
are threatened by rising sea levels and increased tropical
storms. Both are also of concern to the oil-producing
region in the Gulf of Mexico (Romero-Lankao et al.,
2014). In terms of annual GHG emissions, Mexico ranks
10th globally and 5th among developing countries (WRI,
2016). Mexico’s energy sector accounts for 68% its GHG
emissions, reflecting the Mexican economy’s high reliance
on fossil fuel energy sources (Agrawala et al., 2014). The
fossil fuel-based economy and a relatively energy con-
sumptive standard of living are also evidenced in per
capita GHG emissions. In 2012, Mexico’s per capita
GHG emissions were 6.0 t CO2e, compared to 19.9 for
the US, 8.1 for China and 2.4 for India (WRI, 2016).
Despite facing circumstances in terms of climate vulner-
ability and a carbon-dependent economy similar to other
large developing countries, Mexico stands out as a leader
among its peer group for its domestic action on climate
change. The centrepiece of the country’s commitment is
the 2012 General Law on Climate Change, which formal-
ized the Mexican government’s international pledge to
reduce its GHG emissions by 30% from a BAU scenario
in 2020 and by 50% in 2050, using 2000 as the baseline
year. The law itself recognizes these goals as aspirational,
and it was passed in the final year of Mexican President
Felipe Calderón’s six-year administration, calling into ques-
tion its effective implementation. Nevertheless, it represents
the culmination of years of domestic action on GHG mitiga-
tion and climate protection in Mexico, and there is a detailed
plan, outlining a portfolio of strategies by which Mexico
intends to achieve its ambitious GHG reduction goals
(Vance, 2012). Emissions reductions will come primarily

from the energy generation, forestry and agriculture sectors
(Agrawala et al., 2014). The General Law on Climate
Change also cements an institutional structure for addres-
sing the climate change challenge in Mexico. It formalized
an Inter-Ministerial Commission on Climate Change,
opened channels of communication between levels of gov-
ernment and between the government, the private sector
and civil society, created a GHG emissions registry, as the
first step in establishing a carbon market, and set goals to
combat desertification and enhance electricity generation
from renewable sources. Additionally, the new law man-
dated the creation of a Climate Change Policy Evaluation
Agency within the National Institute of Ecology and
Climate Change, with the internationally unprecedented
mandate of mitigation and adaptation programme evalu-
ation (Kraemer, 2012).
Mexico has arrived at its current climate policy leader-
ship position in fits and starts. Periods of policy momentum
created by advocates for action on climate change have
alternated with times of stagnation due to disagreements
between government agencies (particularly the energy
and environment ministries), setbacks in international
efforts to regulate GHG emissions, and changes in political
leadership. In her analysis of the evolution of climate poli-
tics and policy in Mexico, Pulver (2009, 2013) described
five phases of climate change activity. In the early years,
from 1990 to 1992, interest in climate change in Mexico
was limited to diplomatic circles. The subsequent five-
year period, from 1992 to 1996, saw the emergence of an
epistemic community concerned about climate change,
centred in the Mexican scientific community. Then, from
1996 to 2000, the climate issue was slowly politicized
and became a contested topic between Mexico’s environ-
mental and energy ministries. This contest came to a head
when the Mexican Senate voted to ratify the Kyoto Proto-
col in 2000. From 2001 to 2005, Mexican climate politics
were mostly in reaction to international developments,
including the US’s withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol
in 2001 and European ratification of it in 2005. The
period from 2006 to 2012, under the leadership of President
Calderón, was characterized by renewed momentum at the
domestic and international level. In the first years of Cal-
derón’s administration, the national government issued
multiple climate strategies, including the 2007 National
Strategy on Climate Change (Estrategia Nacional de
Cambio Climático, ENCC) and the 2009 Special Program
on Climate Change (Programa Especial de Cambio Climá-
tico, PECC). The latter was the first document to present a
long-term GHG emissions reduction target for Mexico,
which the government formally announced at the 15th
round of the UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen in
December of 2009. The following year, Mexico hosted
the 16th round of the UN climate negotiations in Cancun.
The negotiations resulted in the Cancun Agreements that
created a registry for developing countries to officially
Climate and Development 5
list their pledges to reduce GHGs, a Green Climate Fund
(Fondo Verde) to finance climate adaptation and mitigation,
and a new technology mechanism intended to facilitate
technology cooperation and transfer (Morgan, 2010). In
2012, Mexico’s international pledge to reduce GHG emis-
sions from a BAU scenario was formalized in the domestic
General Law on Climate Change, which was passed along-
side legislation focused on biofuels and renewable energy.
Mexico’s current unique position as an international
leader in domestic climate legislation and the historical
evolution of Mexican climate change policy provide the
context for our media analysis of climate change coverage
in Mexico. By tracking newspaper coverage of climate
change from 1996 to 2009, we supplement the policy
history of the climate issue described above with an analy-
sis of the public culture of the issue, analysing both how
Mexican newspapers covered climate change and the
climate-related issues that engendered policy controversies
and public debate.
Methodology
Our investigation of climate change news coverage is based
on a content analysis of newspaper articles published in
three Mexico City prestige newspapers: Reforma, La
Jornada and El Economista. Excluding tabloids and
sports-oriented publications, Reforma and La Jornada are
two of the three leading newspapers in Mexico City,
taking into account circulation, paid subscriptions and con-
sistency (Aguayo, 2007; Cuánto imprimen y cuánto venden
los diarios capitalinos, 2003; UEVPM, 2003).1 Our choice
of newspapers was guided by research objectives and data
availability. We focus on prestige newspapers because they
offer a more accurate reflection of climate policy debates,
although potentially at the cost of coverage of local
events (Riffe, Lacy, & Fico, 2005). However, the standard
reporting practices of Reforma are to include stories by
local reporters. We address concerns related to reporting
bias in prestige newspapers (Carvalho, 2007; Carvalho &
Burgess, 2005; Dirikx & Gelders, 2010) by analysing
newspapers across the ideological spectrum. Of the three
papers, Reforma sits at the centre of the political spectrum
and represents the mainstream. In contrast, La Jornada is a
left-wing newspaper, and many of its reporters were
members of radical movements. El Economista represents
the more conservative, commerce-oriented end of the pol-
itical spectrum.
Articles from Reforma were collected for the period
from January 1996 to December 2009. These constitute
the primary data source. We chose the 1996–2009 study
period because we are interested in analysing the antece-
dents of Mexico’s climate policy leadership, which was
first manifested in 2010 with Mexico’s hosting of the Six-
teenth Conference of the Parties (COP 16) in Cancun. We
selected 1996 as the start date of our study because
6 S. Pulver and J. Sainz-Santamaría
climate change first became of topic worthy of newspaper
coverage in Mexico in 1997, with the negotiation of the
Kyoto Protocol. Newspaper articles for the entire study
period could only be accessed for Reforma. The archives
for La Jornada and El Economista were incomplete.
However, we were able to access articles in the latter pub-
lications for the two-year period from 1 January 2008 to 31
December 2009. Including La Jornada and El Economista
in the analysis allowed us to assess how a newspaper’s
ideological orientation might affect its coverage of the
climate change issue.
A full-text article database for each newspaper
(Reforma articles from 1996 to 2009 and La Jornada and
El Economista article from 2008 to 2009) was assembled
from a variety of sources, including the news databases
LexisNexis and Factiva and Reforma’s web archive
(Reforma articles from 1996 to 2004). Articles included
in the analysis featured at least one of the following key-
words in the full text: climate change, global warming,
greenhouse gases, Kyoto Protocol or IPCC. This list of
search terms is commonly used in climate media analyses
(Schmidt et al., 2013). The search terms generated 2591
articles published in Reforma between January 1996 and
December 2009. When comparing across newspapers for
the truncated time period from January 2008 to December
2009, the same search terms generated 1113 articles in
Reforma, 643 articles in La Jornada and 236 articles in
El Economista. Articles were reviewed, and duplicate
articles and those that mentioned one of the search terms
in a context not relevant to climate change were discarded.
In total, 3470 newspaper articles were analysed.
Articles were coded according to a scheme developed by
the Comparing Climate Policy Networks (COMPON)
project.2 Article content was coded based on the primary
and secondary thematic frame of the article and the
primary and secondary political scale of activity profiled
in the article. As such, each article was assigned two the-
matic frame codes and two political scale codes, although
the analysis below presents data on primary codes. Thematic
frame categories include ecology/meteorology, science and
technology, policy-making, economy and energy, culture
and civil society (see Table 1 for more detailed descriptions
of each category). Political scale categories include local,
state, national, foreign-national, regional and international.3
Some articles could not be coded based on thematic frame or
political scale of activity because climate change was men-
tioned only in one or two sentences. Of the 3470 articles,
1810 had enough detail to allow coding. Coding of newspa-
per articles was completed by the authors, both experts in
Mexican climate politics and one a native Spanish speaker
and the other proficient in Spanish.
In addition to the thematic frame and political scale
coding of all articles, news articles from Reforma only
were further analysed in two ways. First, those articles
coded with policy-making as the primary thematic frame
(1022 articles) were each labelled with a very detailed
single topic label. Topic labels with a common theme
were then grouped into 12 policy sub-domains. Second,
the full database of articles from Reforma was analysed
to extract the list of climate-related issues animating
public debate in Mexico. Of the 2591 Reforma articles,
811 articles profiled or mentioned a public debate or contro-
versy. Twenty-one key issues of public controversy were
identified, falling within the three broad categories of
science and impacts, politics and policy, and transitioning
to a low carbon economy.
Results
The following analysis of news coverage of climate change
in Mexico seeks to characterize the issue context in which
Mexico’s leadership developed its pioneering climate
policy targets and frameworks. Our discussion of patterns
in newspaper coverage, analysis of thematic content and
political scale, and examination of leading policy debates
highlights several features of the climate issue context in
Mexico that differentiate it from other large developing
countries. The analysis offers additional insight on the
unfolding of debates about climate change in Mexico, com-
plementing more quantitatively focused analyses of news
coverage (Gordon et al., 2010) and qualitative histories of
the policy process that led to Mexico’s ambitious domestic
mitigation targets (Agrawala et al., 2014; Pulver, 2013).
Patterns in newspaper coverage of climate change
Climate change coverage was very limited during the first
years of the time period analysed (Figure 1). Between
1996 and 2000, the number of articles per quarter averaged
fewer than 20. Only two quarters – the winter of 1997,
which encompassed the COP 3 negotiations in Kyoto,
Japan, and the winter of 1998, during the COP 4 meetings
in Buenos Aires, Argentina – came close to reaching 50
articles per quarter. While early coverage was limited,
there is a clear pattern of increasing coverage across time.
However, the year 2007 marked a watershed period in
climate coverage in Reforma, with a remarkable surge in
the number of articles; this pattern was replicated in the
next two years.
Multiple international, national, and local events con-
tributed to the surge. The fact that 2007 marked an uptick
in climate change coverage across a range of developing
and developed countries suggests the importance of inter-
national events; in 2007 these included COP 13, in Bali,
Indonesia, which focused on climate change in developing
countries, a more conclusive IPCC communication, the
promotion of An Inconvenient Truth, the Nobel Prize for
the IPCC and Al Gore, and the Live Earth concert
(Schmidt et al., 2013). Further support for the importance
of international events in driving coverage stems from an
 Climate and Development 7

Table 1. COMPON thematic frame coding categories.

1. Ecology/meteorology: Code this if the primary frame refers mostly to plants, animals and issues of biodiversity and habitat AND/OR
reporting of weather events such as heat waves, droughts, floods and weather trends
2. Science and technology: Code this if the primary frame refers mostly to discoveries, fundamentals, new studies, release of scientific
reports on applied science and new technologies. This category includes discussion of any scientific findings, scientific controversy,
change in science, science reports, etc.
3. Policy making: Code this if the primary frame refers mostly to individuals, processes or claims of governance at any level, whether
international, in national government, opposition, the civil service, quasi non-governmental organizations or local authorities
4. Economy and energy: Code this if the primary frame refers mostly to industry, commerce, markets, business groups, business lobbyists,
specific products or spokespeople and energy interests. Include economic impacts upon society
5. Culture: Code this if the primary frame refers mostly to lifestyles, practices of individual and community living, consumption patterns
and popular culture – films, books and celebrities. Include also the impacts of climate change lifestyles
6. Civil society: Code this if the primary frame refers mostly to civil law claims, campaigns, protests, demonstrations, direct action, email
campaigns, etc.

analysis of the monthly distribution of articles (Figure 2).
Notably, coverage in December is higher than in other
months, and one-third of the articles in December are
related to the COP meetings.
However, international drivers of media attention to
climate change are only part of the story. Local events
can be equally important. For example, the peak in cover-
age in 2007 was also due to major floods that hit the Gulf
of Mexico and the southeast of Mexico, affecting mainly
the states of Chiapas, Veracruz and Tabasco. In the after-
math of the natural disasters, state governors, most
notably Tabasco’s, pointed to climate change as one of
the main causes of the floods. Tabasco alone is mentioned
in 5.6% articles published in 2007. In addition, the federal
government presented its National Strategy for Climate
Change in 2007. Finally, Marcelo Ebrard, an active
climate advocate and participant in the World Mayors
Council on Climate Change, began his tenure as Mayor
of Mexico City in 2007 (Pulver, 2013).
Thematic frame of newspaper coverage of climate
change
The thematic frame of news articles on climate change in
Reforma has changed over time (Figure 3). Scientifically
oriented articles, focused on ecology and meteorology,
constituted a large fraction of newspaper coverage in the
late 1990s, but their share declined to 15% by 2009 (part
of a downward trend since 2002). Similarly, science and
technology-focused articles have declined over time,
while discussions of climate change using economy,
energy and cultural frames rose. Articles focusing on econ-
omic and energy aspects of climate change increased from
20% to 30% of total articles. Likewise, links between
climate change and culture – for example, articles on the
Live Earth concert and the documentary An Inconvenient
Truth – which were absent from 1996 to 1999, represent
a small (10%) but steady fraction of climate change
news coverage in later years. Finally, articles linking
climate change and civil society constitute a consistently
low fraction (5%) of total climate coverage. This aligns
with Pulver’s (2009) analysis of the relative absence of
civil society mobilization around climate change in
Mexico in prior to 2010, although it may also be a
product of a bias in elite newspapers to not report on
local protests.
Comparing newspaper coverage across El Economista,
La Jornada and Reforma suggests some bias in coverage
based on the ideological orientation of each newspaper
(Figure 4). Among the three newspapers, articles

Figure 1. Climate change news coverage by year (Reforma,

1996–2009). Figure 2. Climate change news coverage by month.
8 S. Pulver and J. Sainz-Santamaría
Figure 3. Climate change news coverage by thematic frame. The “COMPON” column provides summary thematic frame data from 2007
to 2008 from the other COMPON cases for comparative purposes.
discussing climate change within a civil society frame are
most common in La Jornada, the more leftist paper. Of
the three papers, Reforma is most likely to discuss
climate change in an economy and energy context – more
so than El Economista. El Economista and La Jornada
are also both more likely to emphasize the science and tech-
nology aspects of the climate issue. However, the differ-
ences across newspapers are minimal, suggesting that the
selection of Reforma as the focal newspaper for the entire
1996–2009 study period is justified.
Of the various thematic frames, the largest number of
articles falls in the “policy-making” frame. Articles focused
on policy-making, both national and international, represent
an average of 30% of newspaper coverage, a proportion
that remained mostly consistent from 1996 to 2009. The
exceptions were the years 2000 and 2001, when policy
articles represented 47% and 60% of total articles, respect-
ively. In 2000, the Mexican Senate debated ratification of
the Kyoto Protocol, while in 2001 climate policy was in the
news because the US withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol.
Figure 4. Climate change news coverage by thematic frame (El Economista, La Jornada and Reforma, 2008–2009).
Articles with policy-making as their primary thematic code
were further classified into policy sub-domains, ranging
from forestry to transportation (Table 2). Each article was
assigned a single policy sub-domain code. Table 2 shows
that energy concerns have been the primary focus of policy-
making, particularly the topics of renewable energy invest-
ment and biofuels. A second major focus of articles on
policy-making was the national climate strategies issued by
the federal government. The first was issued in 2006, in the
final months of Vicente Fox’s presidency. The following
May, newly elected President Calderón announced his admin-
istration’s National Strategy on Climate Change ENCC. In
2009, this strategy was further refined with concrete mitiga-
tion and adaption goals and launched as the PECC. There
was also significant coverage of policy-making at the inter-
national level, referencing the Kyoto Protocol, the Clean
Development Mechanism (CDM), international carbon
markets, and adaptation financing and measures. Neverthe-
less, the majority of articles coded as relating to policy-
making focus at the domestic level.
 Climate and Development 9

Table 2. Policy sub-domains (Reforma only, 1996–2009). represented 31%. Articles focusing on national-level
climate impacts and initiatives constitute a consistent
Policy sub-domains # of articles
element of news coverage of climate change over the
Energy – renewable energy sources 214 period studied. International scale coverage represents a
Energy – transportation 113 declining component of total coverage over the 1996–
Energy – other 79
2009 time frame (note the international trend line in
National climate strategies 153
Kyoto Protocol and Kyoto mechanisms 95 Figure 6). Sub-national accounts of climate vulnerabilities
Adaptation measures 85 have also been consistent in climate change news cover-
Forestry 65 age, constituting a yearly average of 18% of articles. In
Natural hazards 61 contrast, local coverage is mostly absent. Articles
Climate science and impacts research 58
focused at the local scale constitute on average 3% of
Economic incentives for mitigation 41
Climate information 35 articles published each year.
Other 23 Comparing across the three newspapers reveals differ-
ences in the political scale of climate change news coverage
(Figure 7). Among all three, international and national-
scale articles represent the bulk of coverage. Of the three
Political scale of newspaper coverage of climate papers, La Jornada has the largest proportion of extra-
change national coverage. In terms of local coverage, Reforma is
Our data show variable patterns in the political scale of the leader. El Economista featured no articles at the local
news articles mentioning climate change (Figures 5 and level, and the numbers for La Jornada were exceptionally
6). In the early years, there was significant fluctuation in low (4 and 3 in 2008 and 2009, respectively).
percentages. Summing the international, regional and Cross-tabulating the political scale versus thematic
foreign-national categories as representing extra-national content of climate change news coverage reveals several
influences and the local, state and national categories as patterns (Figure 8). First, extra-national coverage (includ-
representing domestic influence shows a range of 25% ing international, regional and foreign-national) tends to
extra-national and 75% domestic in 1996, compared to focus on policy-making, while domestic coverage (includ-
71% extra-national and 29% domestic in 1997, with the ing national, state and local articles) exhibits a focus on
1997 Kyoto Protocol negotiations as the major driver of economy and energy. This aligns with this history of
this fluctuation. In contrast, in the later years from 2005 climate policy in Mexico. The Mexican government did
to 2009, the patterns stabilized, with domestically not institute significant domestic climate policy initiatives
focused articles constituting slightly over 50% of the until 2007, while international policy events and pro-
climate change articles published within a year. grammes were taking place throughout the study period.
On average, international articles constituted approxi- Second, ecology and meteorology and science and technol-
mately 34% of yearly totals, while national articles ogy articles constitute a larger fraction of domestic

Figure 5. Climate change news coverage by political scale.

10 S. Pulver and J. Sainz-Santamaría

Figure 6. Yearly % of articles by political scale.

Figure 7. Climate change news coverage by political scale.

Figure 8. Thematic frame versus political scale of climate change news coverage.
 Climate and Development 11

coverage than extra-national coverage. In particular, state-
level climate impacts and vulnerabilities featured promi-
nently in news coverage, as did national debates about
low carbon energy and transportation technologies.
Finally, the data show that civil society has not taken an
active role on climate change – very few articles focus on
this topic across all political scales.
Topics of public controversy
In addition to coding newspaper coverage based on the-
matic content and political scale, the research examined
coverage of specific climate-related issues that became
topics of debate or controversy in the Mexican news
media (Table 3). Of the articles in the study, 24% focused
on a debated topic. The most prominent topic by far was
the linkage between extreme weather and climate change.
The intersection between global climate change, El Niño
events and local weather was also a topic of debate. Over
200 articles focused on these linkages, likely because
unusual weather, such as intense rain in Mexico City or
drought in northern Mexico, offered a local frame for dis-
cussing global climate change. However, the political prac-
tice of localizing global climate change by linking to local
climate impacts also generated controversy. Leading
Mexican scientists from the National Autonomous Univer-
sity of Mexico (UNAM), including Carlos Gay and Victor
Magaña, challenged such explanations in the media. They
explained that climate change is a global process, with
evidence grounded in global patterns. That is, even
though there is evidence to support that climate change
will affect weather patterns and ecosystems in different
regions of Mexico, it is not possible to establish a direct
link between a local event and global climate change.
These explanations notwithstanding, there was no sign of
attenuation in the association of local meteorological
phenomena and climate change among politicians and jour-
nalists, regardless of ideological stance. This association
was consistently made in opinion editorials published in
Reforma, La Jornada and El Economista.
The second most frequently covered topic of debate
relates to the viability of alternative energy investments
(102 articles) and the related issues of transportation
policy (29 articles) and forestry policy (43 articles). Histori-
cally, Mexico’s energy system has been based on oil,
although present day reserves are declining. Articles pre-
sented both the idea that government investment in renew-
able energy as a potential compensating strategy and the
competing approach that fossil energy production and dis-
tribution systems should be restructured to enhance effi-
ciency. Therefore, the place of renewables in Mexico’s
energy portfolio was a topic of debate. Controversy also
arose over contradictory government policies. Newspaper
article served as a venue for critics to point out that the gov-
ernment simultaneously invested in renewable energy,
including ethanol and other biofuels, while also subsidizing
gasoline, thus incentivizing increased fossil fuel
consumption.

Table 3. Topics of public controversy (Reforma only, 1996–2009).

# of articles
Science and impacts
Are weather events linked to climate change? 221
Is climate change impacting water scarcity, disease burdens, biodiversity? 66
Is climate changed linked to poverty? Is it affecting the economy, mainly agriculture, already? 51
Is deforestation a major cause of climate change? 43
Is climate change happening/is climate change an anthropogenic phenomenon/what constitutes evidence? 38
Does Mexico have enough in climate change science/expertise/information? 21
Will climate change produce climate refugees in Mexico or other parts of the world, now or in the future? 7
Politics and policy
Has the Mexican government done enough to tackle climate change? 40
Should developed countries take more responsibility for climate change? 30
Is it cost-effective to make climate change policies a priority? 30
Is Mexico adopting contradictory measures regarding emissions? 28
Is Mexico taking the right stance in international climate negotiations? Should Mexico align with Latin America, US, and/or 22
EU?
By what percentage should Mexico reduce GHG emissions? 8
Is capitalism and/or human greed the cause of climate change? 6
How should civil society participate in climate change negotiations? 3
Transitioning to a low carbon economy
Should Mexico actively invest in alternative energy sources, including biofuels/ethanol? 102
What is the role of transportation in causing and mitigating climate change? 29
Has the CDM been effective in Mexico? Have the projects been implemented effectively? 24
Are industry and businesses aware of climate change challenges? Are they doing something? 23
Is a new vision and lifestyle the solution to climate change? 10
Is nuclear energy a feasible/good alternative against climate change? 9
12 S. Pulver and J. Sainz-Santamaría
The next tier of issues that generated debate includes
domestic climate impacts (66 articles), effects of climate
change and climate policy on agriculture and poverty (55
articles), and the sufficiency of the Mexican government’s
response to climate change (40 articles). All of these topics
focus on the domestic level. Debates focused at the inter-
national level received significantly less coverage. For
example, only 30 articles raised questions regarding devel-
oped countries’ responsibility for climate mitigation.
Mexico’s role in the international climate negotiations
was mentioned in only 22 articles.
Conclusion
Efforts to govern transboundary environmental issues
reflect an interplay between action in international and
domestic arenas. In some cases, unilateral domestic initiat-
ives by leading states spur action at the international level.
In other cases, international policy is set in anticipation of
domestic action. Until recently, efforts to govern global
climate change have fallen mostly in the latter category,
aiming first for a global agreement and then domestic rati-
fication and implementation. With the collapse of the inter-
national climate negotiations during the Copenhagen round
in 2009, the binding global targets approach was aban-
doned, and emphasis shifted to voluntary domestic
action. The 2015 Paris Agreement formalized this approach
and is based on ambitious, nationally determined commit-
ments to reducing GHG emissions.
Within this context, the Mexican case is of particular
interest. Among the group of large emerging economies
that have mostly resisted any domestic responsibility for
mitigating climate change, Mexico stands out as a climate
policy leader. Mexico is the only large developing
country to have legislated a long-term GHG emissions
target. Mexico’s approach to dealing with climate change
demonstrates that large emerging economies are not all
locked into a single climate policy logic. This research
investigated the climate issue context in which the
Mexican government developed its leading climate policy
frameworks and targets. Tracking climate change news
coverage offers insight into the origins of Mexico’s
climate leadership, by providing a description of the politi-
cal and cultural context in which climate change was
debated in Mexico. Our analysis of news coverage high-
lights two key features of the climate issue context; first,
the recognition that climate change results in significant
adverse impacts in Mexico, and second, the embeddedness
of climate news coverage in pre-existing domestic policy
narratives related to declining oil reserves, investments in
energy efficiency and renewable energy, and air pollution
from transportation.
The local environmental impacts of climate change fea-
tured prominently in news stories about climate change in
Mexico. Articles with an ecology and meteorology frame
constituted a significant fraction of total climate-related
articles published in Reforma in the first four years of the
study period. Moreover, ecology/meteorology articles
were likely to be framed at a local, state or national political
scale. Concern about local impacts also contributed to the
surge in climate-related news articles in 2007. That year,
extreme rainfall and flooding in the Tabasco region made
headlines. The media and local politicians ascribed the
storms in Tabasco to global climate change, establishing
a narrative of adverse climate change impacts in Mexico.
Finally, the topics within the ecology/meteorology category
that generated controversy focused on the likely impacts of
climate change on local weather, the agricultural sector, the
poor, and even the potential for climate refugees in Mexico.
The second dominant frame for climate-related news
coverage in Mexico was the economy and energy frame.
By 2000, policy-making and economy and energy had
replaced ecology/meteorology as the most common the-
matic frame for climate change news stories in Reforma.
The most frequently mentioned topic of articles with a
policy-making frame was renewable energy (214 articles),
followed by national climate strategies (153 articles) and
energy and transportation (113 articles). Likewise news
coverage of topics of public debate were most likely to
question the sufficiency of Mexico’s response to climate
change and levels of investments in alternative energy.
Our review of the literature analysing climate change
news coverage in the Global South suggests that these
two key features of climate change reporting in Mexico
are unusual. Studies focused on other developing countries
find that news coverage of climate change impacts were not
initially tied to local consequences (Batta et al., 2013;
Shanahan, 2009; Takahashi & Meisner, 2013) and that miti-
gation was framed as being the responsibility of industrial-
ized countries (Billett, 2010; Boykoff & Yulsman, 2013).
These two unique features of the climate issue context in
Mexico may contribute to an explanation for Mexico’s
climate policy leadership, although further research is
needed to establish this link. In particular, we identify
three opportunities for extending our research. First, we
have characterized news coverage of climate change in
Mexico as agenda-building, i.e. reflecting and summarizing
real-world events and concerns. It would be interesting to
investigate the agenda-setting role of newspaper coverage,
particularly related to coverage of extreme weather events
and links to climate change. Second, our climate-related
news article database extends to 2009, the year before
Mexico hosted the Cancun round of the international
climate negotiations. Extending the analysis past 2009
would allow for a comparative assessment of the effect of
hosting a COP on newspaper coverage of climate change.
Finally, our analysis focused on the prestige press, in part
because in Mexico climate change tends to be an issue
debated primarily in elite policy circles. An analysis of
climate change coverage by the tabloid press would offer

insight on the exposure to the climate issue among the
broader Mexican public.
In sum, newspaper analyses of climate change coverage
can be used to characterize the national issue contexts in
which climate change is debated. These contexts contribute
to a richer understanding of the politics that shape climate
policy outcomes. In Mexico, media coverage of climate
change centred on local climate impacts and framed
climate change as an issue related to the future of
Mexico’s energy sector. This emphasis on domestic con-
cerns in news coverage of climate change is unusual for a
developing country and is congruent with Mexico’s position
as a leader, among its developing country peers, in legislat-
ing national GHG emissions reduction commitments.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. It is worth noting that sport papers and tabloids have much
higher circulation. Esto (sports) has a daily circulation of
approximately 150,000 and La Prensa’s (tabloid) circulation
is 140,000, while La Jornada, with the highest circulation
numbers of the papers analysed here, has a circulation of
just 40,000.
2. The COMPON project is funded by US NSF Grant No. BCS-
0827006 and seeks to causally link characteristics of national
climate policy networks with national-level mitigation
responses. For more information, please see www.compon.
org.
3. The complete coding scheme can be requested from www.
compon.org. See also Broadbent et al. (2016).
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