EL BOSQUE, Mexico, May 28, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Waves wash over abandoned homes
in a Mexican village slowly being swallowed by the sea -- a symbol of the
climate change effects being felt by the major fossil fuel producer.

The school where Adrian Perez used to attend classes in the community of El
Bosque in the southern state of Tabasco now stands in ruins.

Each time he passes it going fishing, he is reminded of what has been lost to
the sea.

"It's hard. I studied there and look at what it became," the 24-year-old
said.

"The climate's destroying us," he added.

This year, heat waves have sent temperatures soaring in Tabasco and much of
Mexico, stoking the climate change debate as the country prepares for a June
2 presidential election.

According to environmental group Greenpeace, El Bosque is the first community
in Mexico to be officially recognized as displaced by climate change.

In February, the Tabasco state congress approved its relocation.

"We hear about climate change all the time but we never thought that it would
come to us," said 34-year-old Cristy Echeverria, who lost her home.

According to the World Meteorological Organization, ocean warming as well as
the melting of glaciers and ice sheets caused the global sea level to reach
its highest point on record last year.

Around 700 people once lived in El Bosque, which sits on a small peninsula
jutting out into the Gulf of Mexico and exposed to Atlantic storms and
hurricanes.

In the waters offshore, rigs extract the oil and gas on which Latin America's
second-largest economy so heavily depends.

Down the coast, the government of outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez
Obrador has built a major new oil refinery in Tabasco, his home state -- part
of his efforts to achieve energy self-sufficiency.

- Records melt -

Tabasco is one of the areas of Mexico hit hardest by this year's heat waves,
with temperatures in the state reaching 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees
Fahrenheit).

Since March, 48 heat-related death have been registered across the country,
according to the government.

Even Mexico City -- whose altitude has traditionally given it a temperate
climate -- recorded its highest-ever temperature of 34.7 degrees Celsius on
Saturday.

The heat and below-normal rainfall last year have stirred fears of worsening
water shortages.

The average annual availability of water per capita in Mexico has already
fallen by 68 percent since 1960, according to the Mexican Institute of
Competitiveness.

Despite international pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Lopez
Obrador has promoted fossil fuel production during his six-year term in a bid
to ensure energy independence.

The government says it is offsetting the impact by planting one million
hectares of trees, which Lopez Obrador has called "the world's most important
reforestation program."

Pablo Ramirez, a climate campaigner at Greenpeace Mexico, warned that there
was "no public policy that can address the serious impacts that climate
change is having and that are going to get worse."

- Clean energy plans -

Claudia Sheinbaum, the ruling party candidate leading the race to replace
Lopez Obrador, has promised to invest billions of dollars in clean energy
while also supporting state oil company Pemex.

"We're going to promote the energy transition," said Sheinbaum, a scientist
by training who was a contributing author for the United Nations'
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Sheinbaum would take a different approach to Lopez Obrador on energy,
according to Pamela Starr, a professor at the University of Southern
California.

"She's going to encourage much more active investment in clean energy," Starr
told AFP.

Opposition presidential candidate Xochitl Galvez has said that Mexico needs
"to end our addiction to fossil fuels" and proposed to close some refineries.

The campaign promises give little comfort to Echeverria.

"We're not responsible for everything that's happening, but we're paying for
it," she said.

"We're not going to be the only ones."