MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico must increase clean energy production faster than the United States to ensure it complies with demand for goods to be made with more environmentally friendly inputs, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Thursday.
Speaking in the central state of San Luis Potosi, Ebrard said President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had asked him to attend the Nov. 6-18 COP27 climate summit in Egypt before going to the G20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia.
While in Egypt, Ebrard said he would meet U.S. climate envoy John Kerry to discuss “the expansion of clean energy production in Mexico,” which Mexico “is going to have to do at a rate even faster than the United States.”
That would ensure Mexico could comply if U.S. authorities began imposing clean energy certifications on exports, he said.
In a visit by Kerry to the northern state of Sonora last month, Ebrard said the countries shared a vision of upping solar, geothermal, wind and hydroelectric production.
Mexico also presented Kerry with its so-called Sonora Plan, a push to turn the hot, arid border state into a green energy hub with solar farms and lithium production.
With the United States set to house a semiconductor “hub” in the state of Arizona, Mexico will export energy from neighboring Sonora to meet demand, Ebrard said on Thursday.
(Reporting by Kylie Madry in Mexico City; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
