Mexico Announced Aggressive Renewable Energy Targets during COP27

In the middle of the consultations with the Mexican government regarding Mexico’s energy policy under the USMCA and the legal fight the private sector is facing against the legislative and administrative measures the Mexican government has implemented in Andres Manuel López Obrador administration, the Mexican government announced aggressive renewable energy targets to fight climate change during the United Nations climate change conference, known as COP27, in Egypt.

The Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs Marcelo Ebrard and U.S. Special Presidential Envoy John Kerry, in a joint news conference at COP27, announced that Mexico intends to deploy more than 20 additional gigawatts of renewable power generation capacity (wind, solar, geothermal and hydropower) by 2030, in order to reach more than 40 gigawatts of renewable generation capacity.

Mexico and the National Oil Company, Pemex, will eliminate routine flaring and venting on its oil and gas operations, and an investment plan of close to $2 billion USD to achieve 50% sale share of zero-emission vehicles in 2030.

The target is to reduce emissions by 35% from business-as-usual levels by 2030. Mexico is lifting Mexico’s previous target of 22%. Mexico is the second largest greenhouse gas emitter in Latin America.

Although the announcement made by the Mexican Ministry of Foreign affairs constitutes a formal commitment by the Mexican government, it seems to be difficult that such commitment will be achieved. This because the federal budget for the fiscal year 2023, recently approved by the Mexican Congress, does not contain the necessary funds to support this commitment. More importantly, the Mexican energy regulator, the Energy Regulatory Commission, continues with its mission to block the private investment in the sector by not granting power generation permits for renewable energy sources or facilitating the modifications to the ones already granted.

The Mexican government will be required to drastically change its energy policy in order to achieve the commitments made in the COP27 conference.