Mexico City, February 9, 2022 – Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry visited Mexico City today to further U.S.-Mexico dialogue on climate collaboration and clean energy action. During his time in Mexico City, Secretary Kerry and Ambassador Ken Salazar met with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard, and Finance Secretary Rogelio Ramirez de la O to discuss how North America can become the world’s clean energy powerhouse and a leader in the fight against the climate crisis.
In their meeting with President López Obrador, the two discussed the next steps in implementing the climate and clean-energy commitments the United States and Mexico made in the Joint Statement on Mexican – U.S. Engagement on Climate Change of October 2021, at the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, in early November and at the North American Leaders Summit in Washington, DC on November 18.
They discussed the urgency of accelerating national and global efforts to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Both countries shared the view that the 2020s are a decisive decade for climate action, as affirmed at COP26, and intend to take decisive action to implement policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from across sectors, especially by significantly accelerating renewable energy deployment.
They discussed how to expand and accelerate cooperation to that end, and discussed the opportunity for swift, significant deployment of renewable energy in Mexico to bolster the Mexican and North American economies while cutting energy costs for Mexican people and businesses and reducing carbon pollution. Mexico is endowed with extraordinary renewable energy potential, and is well positioned to lead in developing a clean energy economy.
President López Obrador informed Secretary Kerry about his administration’s plans to implement the commitments from the October 2021 Joint Statement, to accelerate Mexican action on renewable energy development and take other near-term policy actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while collaborating with the Biden-Harris administration.
The two sides agreed that they would expeditiously implement high-level dialogue on the implementation of these goals through the formation of a U.S.-Mexico Climate and Clean Energy Working Group, including key agencies on both sides. The policy focus areas will include, as listed in the October Joint Statement, accelerating renewable energy development including solar supply chains, tackling methane emissions from oil and gas, waste, and agriculture, reducing transportation emissions through electrification and other strategies, eliminating deforestation and supporting nature-based solutions, and Nationally Determined Contributions.
The two countries will initiate policy and technical exchange on their respective 2030 goals and on the development of Mexico’s Nationally Determined Contribution. The two sides also agreed to meet in the next 30 days to consider opportunities for rapidly enhancing clean energy deployment.
Secretary Kerry and Ambassador Salazar underscored the importance of accelerating investment in renewable energy to benefit consumers, the broader economy, and our collective fight against the climate crisis. To that end, they raised the significant concerns the Biden-Harris Administration has about Mexico’s current energy-sector proposal and the imperative to bolster open and competitive economies, consistent with USMCA.
Kerry said: “Working together, North America can become the world’s leading clean energy economy. In conversations with our Mexican partners, I had the opportunity to share our concerns with Mexico’s current proposal for the energy sector, and to collaborate on a vision for growing renewable energy and fighting the climate crisis.”
Ambassador Salazar shared his optimism about the future. “We have a historic opportunity as a region to create clean, renewable energy that both provides the power our economies need and protects the environment. Our countries can be leaders in a clean-energy revolution.”