The Green Energy Transition and Energy Security in Mexico, 1980–2016 Expansion and Intensification of Extractivism

This essay shows the difficulties and contradictory processes to achieve energy security by transiting towards a new and secure energy system with a lower share of fossil fuels with far-reaching political, economic, and effects not sufficiently analyzed. The energy transition entails privatizing wind, sun, water, and land to transform them into electricity; additionally, it implies the consumption of minerals, which will expand extractivism. The paper points out Mexico's slow progress in green energy with two purposely designed energy indices: Energy Diversification Index EDI and the Energy Transition Index ETI. It points out the structural limits of the energy transition in this oil-rich country and, in general, for most resource-rich countries. Finally, it presents some policy options for reducing the effects of energy extractivism and the transition to environmentally and socially secure and equitable energy.