Carbon emissions in Mexico will increase if AMLO’s energy reform is approved: Moody’s

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Mexico has lowered its greenhouse gas emissions by keeping the reduction goals set in 2016 unchanged.

If the constitutional reform in Mexico’s energy sector, promoted by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, is approved, there would be an increase in carbon emissions, Moody’s rating agency warned on Thursday, March 24th.

“If the proposed electricity reform initiative for Mexico is approved as proposed, we will see an increase rather than a decrease in carbon emissions,” the agency said in a report.

Mexico lowered its greenhouse gas emission reduction goals by keeping the goals set in 2016 unchanged, but on a base scenario of higher emissions, Moody’s warned.

In this new scenario, Mexico’s carbon emissions increase in absolute terms, Moody’s Investors Service indicated in the report entitled “The policy change will curb private investment, delaying the country’s path towards cleaner energy.”

The priority that the current administration gives to energy “sovereignty” translates into continued dependence on the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) – the government’s public utility company – “which has limited capacity to renew its infrastructure and make a transition to cleaner technologies,” said Adrian Garza, a VP Senior Analyst at Moody’s and co-author of the report.

In recent years, Mexico “significantly slowed down” new renewable generation projects, causing a decrease in investment until 2025.

This “will surely increase the cost of electricity in the long term,” the text indicates, noting that the change “causes Mexico to depend even more on gas imports for power generation.”

Source: El Economista

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