AMLO Discusses Mexico’s Commandments Against Climate Change

At the virtual Forum of the Major Economies on Energy and Action, hosted by the US, President López Obrador presented a series of actions in which Mexico will collaborate to face climate change. As a part of these measures, PEMEX is to invest US$2 billion to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE), specifically methane. The goal is to reduce 97 percent of the current emissions coming from exploration and oil production processes. The announced investment would represent one of its largest spendings in remediation of environmental externalities in the NOC’s history.

The announcement comes shortly after the European Space Agency (ESA) published evidence of the release of thousands of tons of methane gas into the atmosphere coming from a PEMEX platform in the Gulf of Mexico during this past December. Researchers concluded that the leak could be a result of abnormal process conditions at the site, like malfunctions or equipment issues. Inadequate infrastructure has long since been identified as one of the main issues the state-owned company needs to resolve.

AMLO informed that the NOC will carry out the investment with its own resources and international credits but did not give details of the deadline for the goal to be reached or about how PEMEX plans to assign the resources. US President Joe Biden thanked Mexico for its commitment to tackle the world's urgent energy and environmental problems. He also highlighted López Obrador's disposition to collaborate with his administration to achieve these objectives in the region.

"We are advancing toward the goal of achieving self-sufficiency in the production of fuel, gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. For this reason, the modernization of six refineries began in 2019, we acquired one more in Texas and we are about to inaugurate a new refinery in Dos Bocas, Tabasco," López Obrador said.

President López Obrador also mentioned the modernization of 16 hydroelectric power plants of CFE, and a photovoltaic solar park with a generation capacity of 1000MW in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora as major public tools to cut harmful emissions. The president mentioned that a plan to create several solar parks along the border with the US is under review, as well as the construction of transmission networks to export electricity to the US side of California and other states of Mexico's main trading partner.