MEXICO CITY — She was an energy engineer, a quiet, driven Mexican academic who’d worked at a major U.S. government lab and investigated some of the toughest problems in climate change.U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
“Like a political chameleon, she adapts to the situation she’s in,” said Antonio Mediavilla, an environmental scientist who has worked on projects with her administration. “But now, she will be the boss.” “Ninety percent of the proposals in her platform are things we need to do,” said Adrián Fernández, the director of Climate Initiative of Mexico, a nonprofit group that worked with Sheinbaum on projects when she was mayor. But those plans are incompatible with her promises to continue many of López Obrador’s energy policies, he said — like strengthening the national oil and electricity companies.Sheinbaum grew up in a scientific householddeeply involved in leftist causes.
tons of carbon-dioxide emissions per year. After she became mayor herself in 2018, Sheinbaum began converting the buses to electric power.“She has had to put her political loyalty to López Obrador in the forefront, even in situations where she probably isn’t in agreement,” said Fernández.“What we first need,” Fernández said, “is for López Obrador to go home and leave the president-elect alone.
Robles denied any contradiction in Sheinbaum’s embrace of both government energy firms and renewables. “You have to provide certainty,” said Odón de Buen, former director of the National Commission for the Efficient Use of Energy. “If I’m looking to invest $10 billion in something and recoup my investment over 30 years, but I realize the rules of the game could change in three years, I won’t take the risk.”