Context
In April 2016, the German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy and the Mexican State Secretary of Energy signed a joint declaration of intent for a bilateral energy partnership.
In view of Germany’s high level of dependency on energy imports and the triple goals of the German energy transition – reducing greenhouse gases, expanding renewable energies and raising energy efficiency – the German Federal Government has entered into numerous bilateral energy partnerships. Falling under the responsibility of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), these partnerships currently exist with major energy-producing and consumer countries such as India, Morocco, South Africa, China and Brazil, to name a few.
The main aim of this cooperation is to support the expansion of renewable energy and the wider use of efficient energy technology. Advances in this area contribute to mitigating climate change, alleviating global competition for ever scarcer energy commodities, and thus also enhancing Germany's long-term energy security.
With a population of 120 million and with the transport and industrial sectors accounting for a large proportion of its energy consumption, Mexico is among the world’s biggest energy consumers. Fossil fuels play a dominant role in energy consumption in this country, which is the tenth-largest producer of crude oil and natural gas in the world.
At the same time, however, Mexico harbours enormous potential for renewable energies. Yet despite national targets to increase the share of clean energy in electricity generation to 35 per cent by the year 2024, dynamic development has so far failed to take hold.
Given this situation and declining oil and gas production, the Mexican Government introduced a fundamental reform of the energy sector in 2013. The extensive liberalisation of the oil, gas and electricity markets is designed to provide a substantial boost for private investment. The Mexican Government is now seeking to win over potential investors in order to expand its energy infrastructure and to broaden the exchange of know-how with Germany on the most important energy-related issues.
Objective
Germany and Mexico are cooperating successfully with regard to liberalising the electricity markets, disseminating efficient energy technology, expanding the use of renewable energies and increasing transparency in the oil and gas sectors.
Approach
The German-Mexican Energy Partnership was officially launched in June 2016. BMWi and the Mexican Secretariat of Energy (SENER) agreed on the following priority areas for cooperation:
- Liberalisation of electricity markets
- System and network integration of variable renewable energies
- Energy efficiency in the industrial sector
- Transparency in the oil and gas sector.
GIZ was commissioned with the implementation of the energy partnership and has since established a secretariat for this purpose with permanent contact persons in Mexico City and Berlin. The secretariat serves as a point of contact for German and Mexican stakeholders looking to become involved in the bilateral energy partnership. The active participation of stakeholders, especially from the private sector, is encouraged. Companies are invited to present their energy technologies as solutions to specific problems. Furthermore, the energy partnership provides a platform for initiating bilateral corporate cooperation arrangements.
Compared to other approaches, the particular added value of the energy partnership is that it links up high-level government dialogue with practical, goal-oriented project work involving the business community.
GIZ provides advisory services for the technical and strategic implementation of the partnership and also organises study tours and workshops. In addition, GIZ supports the German-Mexican Energy Partnership by conducting scientific studies on selected topics and issues identified by the steering committee.