Both private and public financing have a role to play in moving toward cleaner energies, Mexico’s presidential frontrunner Claudia Sheinbaum said in a speech aimed at business leaders in Mexico City.
The country must speed up its shift to cleaner energy and continue to discuss energy efficiency, she added, without giving additional details.
“Mexico must accelerate its energy transition,” she said at an event hosted by the American Society of Mexico. “We need to facilitate investment but also guarantee energy sovereignty alongside private investment in energy.”
Sheinbaum, formerly the mayor of Mexico City, represents President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s ruling party Morena, under which the government has directed billions to prop up the indebted state-owned oil company, opened a refinery and defended the use of fossil fuels.
Read More: Climate Expert Claudia Sheinbaum Aims to Lead Oil-Rich Mexico
A scientist who has co-authored award-winning research on climate change, Sheinbaum will face the question of whether to continue his predecessor’s policies on energy. She has focused her campaign messaging on plans to continue on the current policy path.
Private investment in renewables has dropped since AMLO, as the president is known, took office in 2018. Lack of access to energy is among a slew of challenges that companies face when setting up operations in the country.
In her speech, she also emphasized the importance of access to water and said that a manufacturing plant that Tesla Inc plans to build near Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, should not affect residents’ drinking water supply. She added that tourism has to be accompanied by adequate infrastructure for workers, including housing.
San Miguel Times
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