The green future lies in energy efficiency

One of the main arguments against the presidential initiative for electricity reform that is being discussed in Congress is that with it, Mexico will not be able to fulfill the commitments on climate change for the following years.

They argue that the Federal Electricity Commission does not have the financial or operational capacity to achieve the energy transition, because if the reform is approved, it would become a state matter as it is enshrined in the Constitution, and therefore, it would fall completely on the shoulders of the company that today runs Manuel Bartlett.

However, the possibility that Mexico will not reach its clean generation and emission reduction goals for the following decades is not merely a local matter. In fact, despite the fact that nations have taken great steps towards that green world to which they aspire, they have not been enough.

In its most recent global assessment of market and policy trends in energy efficiency, the International Energy Agency (IEA) finds that the total annual investment in energy efficiency worldwide must triple by 2030. to be consistent with the path to net-zero emissions by 2050, as set out in the agency’s roadmap.

It reports that the rate of improvement in global energy intensity, a key indicator of how efficiently global economic activity uses energy, would have recovered in 2021 to 1.9 percent. This is in line with the average annual rate of improvement over the last 10 years, but well below the 4 percent needed between 2020 and 2030 on the IEA’s path to net-zero emissions by 2050.

The challenge is great. For this reason, it is important that governments, including Mexico, place a special emphasis on energy efficiency, to consider it as “the first fuel” with which clean energy needs are met more economically (so to speak) in the world. future.

“A sea change in energy efficiency will give us a fighting chance to avoid the worst effects of climate change while creating millions of decent jobs and lowering energy bills,” Faith Birol, executive director of the IEA, told end of last year.