Policies pursued by Mexico's new government are putting the country's Paris climate commitments at risk, claimed environmental campaign group Greenpeace.
The cancellation of Mexico’s fourth clean-energy tender, the resurrection of old thermal power plants and allowing state oil company Pemex to develop fracking projects were all slammed by Greenpeace’s Mexico branch, as it gave a damning verdict on the record of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) so far.
Greenpeace said they are among five energy policy decisions taken in the first 100 days of the AMLO administration that put the country on a “trajectory away from the fight against climate change and that show that the environment … is not a relevant theme”.
AMLO shocked the renewable energy community in early January by cancelling the fourth clean energy tender, which was in its final stages and had lined up around 28 global investors. After three successful tenders that had contracted over 7GW of non-hydro renewable energy capacity, investors believed the government would continue the contracting policies in order to meet a 35% clean energy target by 2024.
So far the AMLO government hasn’t said what it plans for the renewables industry, but has said it wants to supply the “cheapest possible power” to its population, and revamp old hydro and thermal plants. It also wants to strengthen federal power company CFE and Pemex in order to increase energy independence.
“Greenpeace recognises the importance of energy independence as well as the need to fight against poverty in our country … but we cannot talk about sovereignty depending on fossil fuels, and with a policy that worsens the grave global climate crisis,” said Pablo Ramirez, the head of Greenpeace Mexico’s air quality programme.
