If approved, the initiative to reform Articles 25, 27 and 28 of the Constitution will leave the transition towards the generation of clean energy enshrined in the Constitution and not only at the legal level, which represents an enormous advance towards combat climate changealthough since the State is the only one that will be able to act in this sense, it casts a shadow over any possibility that the new generations will see a benefit, experts explained in the 17th forum of the Open Parliament in the Chamber of Deputies.
José Salvador Carrillo Castillo, director of Sustainable Economy of the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO) explained that the generation of electrical energy contributes with 23.3% of the carbon dioxide emissions on the planet, so the best way to combat climate change is to stop generating energy, but if it has to be generated, the trilemma between security, equity and sustainability must be fulfilled.
“There is no energy that does not leave a mark on the environment or is completely reliable, which is why a diverse energy mix is required because last year 57% of the energy generated was combined cycle,” he explained, “changing the dispatch of merit could cause increase carbon dioxide emissions between 26 and 65%, as stated by the NREL, you can be sure that this reform casts a shadow over the future for new generations”, he said.
Horacio Sánchez Bárcenas, research professor at the SEPI-ESE-IPN He recalled that the energy transition will remain at the constitutional level in the new legal framework proposed by the federal government, which is of vital importance in order not to move towards an economy with higher gas emissions.
This, since an addition to Constitutional 27 is proposed, which says that the State takes the leadership of this policy and two paragraphs are added to Constitutional 28 in which the role of the State as rector of the transition is defined.
“We cannot forget that as a proportion of the installed capacity, the CFE has 39% clean energy while the private ones in the country have only 17%, and the rest are the combined cycles for self-supply and that the CFE is obliged to buy from them. independent energy producers, where is your support for renewables today? What makes us think that they will change this proportion? What they want is control of the market, they don’t care about the transition, that’s the way it has been and that’s the way it will be,” he said.
Adrián Fernández Bramauntz, executive director and founder of the Mexico Climate Initiative He pointed out that the reform as it is currently proposed will maintain the health impacts of electricity production, and Mexico will be the first G20 country that does not comply with its commitments to the Paris Agreement.
“We can still design a transparent, efficient and clean energy policy that optimizes energy models and policies, a framework that meets aligned economic and environmental criteria,” he assured.
According to Sandra Bucio, in charge of the Economic Analysis and Demand sub-management of the Federal electricity commission (CFE), today the state-owned company has 158 generation plants with an installed capacity of 43,437 megawatts, of which 34% are clean energy, which does not emit carbon dioxide.
At the same time, the capacity to generate with fuel oil is only 6.3%, but effective generation has not exceeded 3% in recent years, so the approach of leaving all possible reserve capacity against capacity contingencies intermittent continues to be the best option, under the stewardship of the State, as proposed by the reform.
For now, the CFE will repower 750 megawatts of hydroelectric power and add 300 megawatts to its capacity through the Puerto Peñasco photovoltaic plant, in addition to also converting the Los Humeros geothermal generator, to have an additional 305 megawatts of this capacity.
And before the end of this administration, it will have tendered 7,745 megawatts of natural gas combined cycles, which will have a much more robust mix to face the growth in electricity demand, favoring the use of clean energy but without neglecting energy security and fossil energy backup.
Finally, Ricardo Zamora, a businessman from Project Development and Business Consultingexplained that the CFE provides a maximum of 9% of the energy through coal, while countries like Germany have 30% of their capacity.
“Yes, we want to move towards carbon-free energy, but we cannot abandon access to energy for all Mexicans. The fact that the stewardship of the State is sought does not make us anti-renewable or the bad guys in the movie, it only leads us to seek an orderly and possible transition, ”he assured.