Just Transition: Lessons from Mexico

Abstract

In 2013, Mexico undertook a series of national energy reforms that promoted largescale, privately-funded renewable energy development. The stated goals of the reforms were to fill investment gaps in the public energy sector and to help meet CO2 reduction targets. Human rights and environmental organizations in Mexico, however, have criticize this model of development promoted by the reforms for their apparent contributions to increasing human rights abuses and generating new “socio-economic conflicts.”¹

Using data collected between 2010-2020 at the Business and Human Rights Resources Centre on abuses in renewable energy development across Latin America and a review of policy, regulatory and legal regimes of the reforms, this thesis explores three primary questions: 1) Why are large-scale, private sector projects the preferred model of renewable energy development?; 2) What legal and regulatory structures created by the reforms enable the present violence and conflict?; and 3) What lessons can the global community learn from Mexico’s model and experience?

My key finding is that the energy reforms in Mexico, and the model of renewable energy development they promote, need to be reconsidered. A just energy transition model, that moves from fossil fuels to renewables, would not encourage the current patterns of land use and dispossession. Further, the rights of indigenous peoples must be secured through full recognition, legally and in practice, of their customary land rights and community practices regardless of the interests of private investors, companies, and governments in renewable energy.

¹ Puentes, A., Peña Lizarazo, R. 8 July 2020. “Towards Energy Justice in Mexico: Challenges and Conditions.” Business & Human Rights Resource Centre. https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/blog/desaf%C3%ADosy-condiciones-para-avanzar-hacia-la-justicia-energ%C3%A9tica-en-m%C3%A9xico/