NICKI SHIELDS: Hello, and welcome back to you,
Supercharged here in Mexico City.
We're in one of the most populous cities in the world
and also, the most congested.
Now this road was so crowded that they decided
to build another story directly above to double
the flow of traffic.
That's where a citizen led project called Via Verde comes
in, not so much to clean up the streets,
but rather to green them up.
FERNANDO MONASTERIO: Via Verde it is a project that
will transform more than 1,000 concrete pillars
of these elevated highway.
So we'll get more than 60,000 square meters of new green area
to Mexico City.
The World Health Organization recommends
around 9 square meters of green area per [inaudible].
In Mexico, we have less than 4.
NICKI SHIELDS: OK.
So not even half.
FERNANDO MONASTERIO: Not even half.
So we're transforming every bridge,
every pillar, every wall into new green areas to abuse
oxygen.
NICKI SHIELDS: Isn't is great?
You suddenly see how many different species of plant
you've got.
Well, I'm glad it's cleaning out the here.
Because even just standing here, breathing in the air,
you can feel the pollution going into your lungs, don't you?
Plants to do a great job of absorbing carbon dioxide,
pumping out oxygen, and improving air quality.
But at a garage out of town, they're
taking it one step further, converting existing gas
guzzling cars into brand new electric vehicles one
combustion engine at a time.
Check out this old beetle, really popular in Mexico,
because it's actually been used for years as the taxis.
Now take a little look under the boot, where the engine sits,
an internal combustion engine pumping lots of dirty air
into what is already a very polluted city.
But if we have a look under here,
we can already start to see the progress.
Engine's been taken out, motor's going in,
just waiting for the battery.
Hector. HECTOR RUIZ: Hi.
NICKI SHIELDS: What are you actually doing?
Because clearly, we're standing in front of this Peugeot.
And there is one big hole where the engine used to be.
HECTOR RUIZ: Hector, yeah, yeah, it was a interesting car.
It was polluting the environment.
It was an old car.
And we decided to put in an electric motor.
And so the car is going to be completely free of pollution.
NICKI SHIELDS: So as well as giving this car
a completely new lease of life, you're actually taking
a dirty car that was putting pollutants
into the air of the road and putting a clean one.
HECTOR RUIZ: Yeah, sure.
NICKI SHIELDS: Do you think other people are going
to follow in your footsteps?
HECTOR RUIZ: Yeah, absolutely.
I believe this is a very interesting project,
because this is somehow much affordable for the people
to get, instead of buying a brand new electric car,
or any hybrid, or an alternative car.
NICKI SHIELDS: Now some critics of the electric revolution
worry about where the electricity
comes from to charge these cars and understandably so.
If the electricity is generated from dirty fossil fuel
power stations, then it kind of defeats the point.
So that's exactly why energy companies are investing
in renewable sources of power.
Clean energy for clean cars is the last piece
in the puzzle of how to improve air quality in Mexico City.
I'm hoping you can help me answer this question.
If I was to charge my electric vehicle in Mexico City,
where would the electricity come from?
And is any of that renewable?
PAOLO ROMANACCI: The electricity come from the grid.
The grid gets the energy from all the generation
plant of the country.
Today, 28% of the [inaudible] installed in Mexico
is renewable.
NICKI SHIELDS: That's a good start.
PAOLO ROMANACCI: As you see here, this is Mexico.
And this is the resume of our generation.
Right now, we are generating 214 megawatts more or less.
That means more or less, we are giving energy to 600,000
households in Mexico.
So that's interesting.
And then we can get into details.
So we can zoom in.
And now we see power plants.
NICKI SHIELDS: And this all the different wind farms.
We've been experiencing out on the roads today, obviously,
the pollution levels are very, very high in Mexico City.
Do you think one of the keys to solving that problem is more
people using renewable energy?
PAOLO ROMANACCI: 50% of the pollution of Mexico City
depends on cars, on transportation.
And I think this is going to change dramatically
in the next few years.
Clearly, renewable is very important,
but also is very electric vehicles.