Officials in California are also applauding the victory of Mexican President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, citing her support for the state’s climate.
“Having an engineer whose background is working on climate, it’s a big deal,” exclaimed Democratic Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia, who was in Mexico City on Sunday with Sheinbaum’s team to watch her overwhelming triumph. Garcia represents California’s inland border district.
Politicians from California and Mexico already have close working relationships and have agreements in place to work on a number of climate-related issues, such as recycling, drought, land conservation, and emissions from cross-border trucks.
However, Sheinbaum, an engineer by background who contributed to reports for the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is expected by Californians to instill a greater sense of urgency in the matter, particularly with regard to clean energy and transportation.
Among the Californians who shared photos of themselves on Monday with Sheinbaum—a former Mexico City mayor with connections to California—was Governor Gavin Newsom.
In the 1990s, she worked as a Ph.D. candidate at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for four years, studying how energy is used in Mexico’s transportation industry, while her then-husband, Carlos Ímaz, attended Stanford for graduate work.
One of Newsom’s main targets in his foreign climate diplomacy has been Mexico. Since he assumed office in 2019, the state and Mexican officials have inked four climate agreements.
“Sharing already strong historical, cultural, environmental, and economic ties with Mexico, California looks forward to continuing its fruitful relationship with President-elect Sheinbaum,” Newsom stated.
Sheinbaum is likely to continue supporting Mexico’s energy independence and upholding its state-owned monopolies in power and petroleum.
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Sheinbaum is a close ally of departing leftist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. She has, however, made it clear where she and he disagree on the subject of funding renewable energy.
Although López Obrador maintained that fossil fuels were essential to achieving energy independence, his protégé has proposed investing $13.6 billion to develop wind and solar power plants as well as the necessary transmission infrastructure.
According to Gil Tal, director of the University of California, Davis’ Electric Vehicle Research Center, which collaborates with Mexican government on heavy-duty fleet electrification, charger build-out, and second-hand EV commerce, “it was a slow change when it comes to the environment and climate change. We hope for a little bit more push for environmental goals”
Professor of environmental engineering at the University of California, Merced Josué Medellín-Azuara expressed his hope for increased cooperation in the areas of water infrastructure and drought resilience in particular.
Speaking on Monday from Tempoal in Mexico, he added, “There’s been some exchange of information, there’ve been some binational meetings, although the support for science in Mexico has decreased substantially. We may see some more prominent place in the agenda in terms of climate science.”
In his capacity as leader of the Assembly Select Committee on California-Mexico Bi-National Affairs, Garcia said he sees a chance to deepen collaboration on electric vehicles, especially in the area of lithium manufacturing.
Garcia is conducting a hearing on education and economic possibilities this Wednesday. Sonora’s lithium-rich clay resources are ready for exploitation, according to Sheinbaum.
“I could envision a partnership in that space, whether it’s the U.S. and Mexico or California and the state of Sonora,” stated Garcia, whose district includes the Salton Sea, which Newsom hopes to establish as the “Saudi Arabia of lithium.”
