The news that Mexico City´s authorities will begin fining shops which give free plastic bags to consumers might come as a surprise to many. After all, it is often assumed that environmental concerns are primarily a ‘Northern’ issue, and that poorer cities could not possible be willing, or capable, of implementing policies which even policymakers and voters in the UK would balk at. For people better acquainted with local governments’ environmental policies in Latin America, though, the move is only a continuation in a progression of innovative policies sweeping across the region´s cities for the last two decades.
