MEXICO

Mexico’s three large coal plants began operating between 1983 and 1993 and have a combined capacity of nearly 5,400 megawatts (MW). Coal has supplied some of Mexico’s electricity over the past two decades, a contribution that has gradually diminished as new gas-fired plants come online. Mexico's Paris climate pledge, laid out in its 2022 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) report, calls for a 43% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and a 30% reduction in methane emissions by 2030. The NDC also calls for emissions to peak in 2025. Since 2017, Mexico has been a member of the Powering Past Coal Alliance, a group of nations that have pledged to phase out existing coal plants. In Mexico, the election of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in 2018 provoked a decided shift in federal policy toward fossil fuels despite Mexico’s stated commitment to decarbonization. In 2020, Mexico ramped up its purchases of coal while imposing new rules discouraging solar and wind projects, and the country remains far from complying with its clean energy commitments under the Paris Climate Accord. In November 2021, a top official of Mexico’s state-owned electric utility indicated that Mexico has no plans to build new coal-fired power plants, and there were no active coal plant proposals in the pipeline as of early 2024. While Mexico's recent electricity development plan (2023-2037) alludes to the retirement or replacement of 4,317 MW of currently installed power generating capacity by 2037, it does not mention the retirement of any specific coal-fired power station.