Summer time in Mexico could come to an end: what is the reason?

Summer time in Mexico could soon come to an end. The measure that has been in force in the country since 1996 and involves advancing the clock one hour every early April has been evaluated by the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who said that there is a possibility that it will not be implemented anymore.

The president of Mexico had already stated for a few months that his government intended to put an end to the time change questioning the effectiveness of the summer. “There was talk of savings, but it was not shown that there were really savings in electrical energy,” he said last March and announced that he would commission a study on the matter from the Ministry of Energy.

This Wednesday he said that he already has the results of that study and that he will announce them soon, but he announced that there is “a great possibility” of ending this practice.

For eight months of the year, Mexico and dozens of other countries follow daylight saving time, and for the remaining four months they return to standard (winter) time. But, what are the reasons give by the Government? Also, what is say in other countries where the time change is also being debate? And which ones have a time change, have they ever had it or have they never implemented it?

Health impact and “minimal” energy savings

“The savings are minimal and the damage to health is considerable,” these have been the arguments that López Obrador has given again during the morning conference this Wednesday.

Historically, the raison d’être of summer time has been to take advantage of more sunlight to use less electricity in homes or work buildings. However, it is difficult to conclude whether this practice really saves energy or not, since the most recent data available in the country is from 2018. According to the Electricity Savings Trust (FIDE), in that year, the savings in the electricity consumption was 945.29 GWh, which could “supply the consumption of 592,240 dwelling houses for a whole year, or the equivalent of the energy consumption of 8.3 million fluorescent lamps lit 24 hours a day during one year,” according to the body in charge of monitoring this measure since its implementation.

While the training might assist with decreasing some energy utilization, pundits of the move all over the planet have raised worries about whether how much energy saved merits the problem of carrying out the framework across the globe. In 2008, the US Department of Energy found that a four-week expansion of sunshine saving time from April-October to March-November saved around 0.5% in complete power consistently. While that seems like close to nothing, it sums 1.3 billion kilowatt-hours, which as per the US Department of Energy amounts to “how much power involved by in excess of 100,000 homes for a whole year. ” But a review that very year by the National Bureau of Economic Research figured out that sunshine saving opportunity marginally increments private power interest: Although lighting use was diminish, warming and cooling request expand, so the power utilization was about something similar.

The controversy in other countries

Mexico is not the only country in the world where it is debate whether or not the time change should exist.

In the European Union (EU) it is a controversy that comes twice a year with each clock adjustment because the member countries cannot agree on its implementation, despite the fact that in 2018 the European Parliament voted in favor of ending this practice. The survey promoted by Brussels then also showed that among the European population there is no unanimous response to the issue: although 84% of the participants (4.6 million) voted in favor of putting an end to it, there is at least 20% in favor of continuing with this practice.

The United States Senate passes a bill to make daylight saving time permanent

In the United States, the Senate approved last March by unanimous consensus the Sunlight Protection Act, which would make summer time permanent in that country.

Although it would still have to pass the House of Representatives and be sign by President Joe Biden to become law, the bill has its critics.

Neubauer is not alone in this sentiment. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine issue a statement following the passage of this law in the Senate, warning that “making DST permanent ignores potential health risks that can be avoid by establishing a permanent standard time”.

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