The second presidential debate included for the first time in these meetings the discussion on climate change, where the orientation of the candidates' proposals subordinated the environment to the needs of the energy economy, lamented Luis Zambrano, Researcher at the Institute of Biology of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
When entering the section on climate change and sustainable development, the energy transition was the aspect most used by the three presidential candidates.
Xóchitl Gálvez, candidate for the Strength and Heart for Mexico coalition made up of the National Action Party (PAN), the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), stressed her interest in installing 2 million solar panels so that families pay less money for electricity.
Xochitl Galvez. Photo: INE.
The opposition candidate pointed out that the lack of energy in Mexico is causing nearshoring investments, in which companies are relocated to Mexico with a view to exporting to the United States, to go to other countries. “We need clean and cheap energy.”
For his part, the presidential candidate of the Citizen Movement party, Jorge Álvarez Máynez, highlighted the importance of attracting such nearshoring supply chains. Already on April 3, in an interview with Causa Natura Media, he stated that feeding new plants with light would be done through clean energy.
From this account, his proposal is a model based on solar and wind energy. “For that we need to build infrastructure as well.”
Claudia Sheinbaum, candidate of the alliance between Morena, the Labor Party (PT) and the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM), said that they are considering making progress in the energy transition.
He highlighted his work in Mexico City by placing solar panels on the roof of the Mexico City power plant capable of producing 19 megawatts.
Among several proposals, Sheinbaum highlighted the Puerto Peñasco plant, which is the largest in Latin America, with 5 Gigawatts generated by means of solar energy. A project that could supply the United States, as stated by the head of the Federal Electricity Commission, Manuel Bartlett, in February of last year.
For Zambrano, green energy technology can have efficiency benefits, but it will always leave an ecological footprint.
“We are putting the economy back as the ultimate goal and not as the necessary tool to solve programs. If we continue to put the economy as the ultimate goal, there will never be enough technology to avoid environmental damage, because all technology, no matter how efficient it is, generates environmental damage,” said the expert.
Greenhouse gases
Jorge Máynez pointed out that the current energy generation model generates 51% of greenhouse gases since it is based on fossil fuels, fuel oil and thermoelectric power plants.
Jorge Máynez, MC candidate. Photo: INE
Its intention is also to expand the use of renewables to the public. He said expanding a program such as the one implemented in Hermosillo where panels are placed in schools and hospitals.
With regard to electromobility, using renewable energy in public transport, as is the case in Nuevo León, he said. For this purpose, it is proposed to use the entire Special Tax on Production and Services (IEPS) for electromobility and non-motorized mobility. In addition to 2,500 kilometers of bike paths. “The vast majority of cities don't have it.”
Xóchitl Gálvez pointed out that his government would comply with the Paris agreement, to reduce the emissions generated in the country. The proposal is that by 2030 50% of energy will be renewable, which advances the current expectation of achieving this percentage by 2050.
“What good are large projects if the air is polluted like that breathed by the inhabitants of the metropolitan area of Monterrey and the metropolitan area of the Valley of Mexico?” , said the candidate of the Coalition Strength and Heart for Mexico.
Sheinbaum recognized that to mitigate climate change, it is necessary to work on the mitigation of greenhouse gases.
“That means reducing the emissions that cause climate change. Mexico has 1.8% of those emissions. There we are going to make progress in the energy transition,” said the government's candidate.
He highlighted that the current administration has declared 44 protected natural areas totaling 3.1 million hectares, of which 1.9 million are in the vicinity of the Mayan Train; the Sowing Life program with which 7.45 million tons of CO2 have been avoided; and the ban on fracking.
Claudia Sheinbaum. Photo: INE.
For Marco Leopoldo Arellano, a researcher at the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences of the UNAM, the proposals of the official candidate are part of a strategy to stay close to the route outlined in the current six-year term by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. At least in the campaign, he said.
“Right now, strategically, the candidate does not want to get out of the shadow given to her by the presidential umbrella or to quarrel with the proposals, policies and the line of the fourth transformation. I wouldn't strategically see any advisor or advisor who would recommend a candidate who has that advantage in the polls,” Arellano said.
The energy transition isn't everything
Zambrano said that the candidates focused on trending issues, without seeing climate change as a whole. He explained that two main lines are required to combat global warming that include adaptation and mitigation actions.
But the candidates have focused mostly on the last one, he said.
“The energy transition was a small piece in terms of mitigation, but the other part of mitigation also has to do with improving land management because a lot of land management involves not only reducing missions, but capturing CO2,” said Zambrano.
With regard to adaptation measures, there was an absence of proposals in this area. Zambrano pointed out that it is essential to talk about the problems derived from climate change that we are already living with, such as hurricanes, increased fires and drought.
“We have to reduce their negative effects with mitigation, but we'll have to adapt as well. We cannot think of buoyant economies and economic development, of the transisthmic one, for example, as proposed out there or with the Mayan train, or to say what we need is to make it easier for companies, we are going to put padlocks on them but we are going to give them ease, we cannot think about that, without first considering climate change and the effects it is already having,” he said.
Awkward topic
Political scientist Marco Leopoldo Arellano explained that the Debate Committee of the National Electoral Institute is represented by all parties and that is where it was agreed that climate change should be included in the second debate.
“This comes from the debate committee chaired by Councillor Carla Humphrey, where the INE, which has always tried to be a cutting-edge institute, in which issues are discussed, so to speak, very current and progressive, decided to include it as part of this second debate in a section because in the end it didn't fit as such into one of the three debates,” he said.
Arellano said that climate change is an issue that interests the vast majority of Mexicans and at the international level, but that politicians find it difficult to deal with specific proposals because it is broad and cross-cutting.
“If it really were something that interested him, then the electoral authority and the parties would have to hold a debate on climate change, not just an accessory topic and it seems that this is more than enough to cover the eye of the issue much more than actually being a complete development of the problem,” Arellano said.
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