Mexico's new environment secretary on their big climate plans

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Mexico Charts a New Path on Climate Change

By Justin Worland / Mexico City

Senior Correspondent

It’s been just over two weeks since Claudia Sheinbaum took office as Mexico’s first female president. It’s already clear that the new government is preparing to take a new, more ambitious tack on climate change.

In an Oct. 16 interview from her office in Mexico City, Alicia Bárcena, the country’s new environment secretary, spelled out an aggressive climate agenda for the country: dramatic expansion of renewable electricity generation, decarbonization of state-owned energy firms, and investments in a range of nature-based solutions. All of this will feed into a new commitment from the government for Mexico to get to net-zero emissions by 2050 and an “ambitious” new nationally determined commitment to be submitted to the United Nations ahead of next year’s climate conference.

“We are putting all our efforts on protecting the environment, restoring the environment,” she says, adding the government wants to “look into topics like energy, like infrastructure, with a different mindset.”

The emerging picture of Mexico seeking to lead on climate issues comes after months of eagerness and anticipation following Sheinbaum’s election. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, her predecessor and close ally, didn’t prioritize the issue and spent more time touting Pemex, the country’s state-owned oil company. Climate advocates hope Sheinbaum, a PhD energy engineer who has contributed to U.N. climate reports, will deepen Mexico’s climate commitments.

How the new populist government approaches climate change has the potential to ripple across Latin America and the world. It’s also a key question for the U.S. and American businesses. Mexico could become a key partner on everything from emissions monitoring to decarbonizing clean technology supply chains.

Appointing Bárcena was an early positive signal of Sheinbaum’s desire to prioritize the environment. Bárcena studied biology and earlier in her government career worked on environmental issues, giving her a strong foundation for the job ahead. And, until a few weeks ago, she served as Mexico’s foreign secretary, bringing international and domestic prestige to the role. The previous cabinet experience will also help her work across the new government to coordinate climate and environmental priorities. “I'm happy that I was able to help Mexico in the other role, because it allowed me to see the broader picture,” she says.

Among the biggest questions for many climate advocates—particularly in the U.S.—is how Sheinbaum will approach investment from foreign companies in the country’s renewable energy sector. Mexico has high potential for renewable energy, but the sector requires investment and has been underdeveloped. Under López Obrador, the government made a number of moves that hindered private investment in renewable energy and made foreign renewable project developers skeptical of doing business in the country.

While I was in Mexico City, Sheinbaum convened a U.S.-Mexico CEO dialogue with executives from major American companies in attendance, signaling that Mexico is open for business. She highlighted renewable energy as of particular interest. “President Sheinbaum has been very clear: we want foreign direct investment to come to Mexico,” says Bárcena. “But not any investment. We want investments that generate jobs, that protect the environment.”

The new government is also keen to partner with the U.S. on climate efforts, Bárcena tells me. After recent meetings with climate and environmental officials in Washington, Bárcena hopes that the U.S. and Mexico can partner to bring joint commitments to the U.N. climate talks in Brazil next year.

One area of interest for many in the U.S. is how Mexico approaches mining and minerals. Mexico is rich with critical minerals needed for the energy transition—including lithium and copper—and the country is seen as a potential partner to the U.S., which is trying to diversify its supply chain away from China. Bárcena says the government is in talks about how to approach mining. Those discussions include cleaning up the legacy of dirty mining as well as evaluating new technologies in use elsewhere that could allow for cleaner mining in Mexico going forward, she says.

And then there’s the country’s oil and gas sector. Pemex, the state-owned oil and gas firm, is a nationally celebrated institution—though it recently has become deeply indebted as national production has declined. After taking office, Sheinbaum said she would cap the company’s oil production at 1.8 million barrels a day, down from a peak of more than 3 million. In our interview, Bárcena tells me the company, one of the world's biggest emitting firms, would also focus on decarbonizing its operations. “State owned companies should reduce carbon emissions,” she says.

In her first weeks on the job, she has called for a new way of thinking about environmental issues and better incorporation of the environment into policy making across the government. “We need to change the development paradigm,” she tells me. “And that means that we need to move away from extractivist policies and move towards an egalitarian society and sustainable one from the environmental point of view.”

Mexico’s new approach to climate is a significant development in the fight against climate change. That’s in part because every pound of carbon emissions matters, and the country is by some measures the world’s 12th largest emitter.

But, perhaps more importantly, Sheinbaum’s approach combining left-of-center social policy, efforts to tackle climate change, and private-sector investment has the potential to offer a new development model in places where state-owned energy firms have outsized importance. That’s especially the case in Latin America, where left-wing leaders have often tried to use oil wealth to fund their social agenda. Bárcena doesn’t miss what’s at stake. “We need to change the development paradigm,” she tells me. “And that means that we need to move away from extractivist policies and move towards an egalitarian society and a sustainable one.”

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