CCUS in Mexico – Carbon Visions MX

Carbon Visions MX was an event to bring together stakeholders in Mexico to help start moving CCUS forwards again. Mexico had a lot of activity on CCUS from 2010 to 2018 when the Presidency and policy changed. The country had a national storage assessment as part of the North American Storage Atlas, had a CCUS Roadmap, had started on regulations, and had chosen a centre of excellence (INEEL). Much of this was with World Bank funding and support. Since that pause in CCS activity, some continuity and momentum was kept alive by Jazmin Mota and colleagues setting up the virtual MeCCS Platform in 2021. With the new Presidency of Claudia Sheinbaum in 2024, who has a Physics PhD and was a co-author to IPCC AR4 and SR1.5, there is renewed interest in CCUS in the country.

This event was hosted at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) on the 8^th May.It was exciting to hear the Ministry of Energy (SENER) plans from Director General Adrian Ruis in recognising the need for CCUS to meet their climate targets of reducing emissions by 35% by 2030. The next steps include establishing a legal framework and to establish CCS clusters by 2027, strengthening R&D, mobilising finance including through their emission trading scheme, and increasing international cooperation and technology transfer.

In the industry panel, from Nestor Quintero we heard of the CCUS activities of CEMEX (Mexico-based multinational cement and construction company) who want to achieve their net zero by 2050. As a multinational company, this includes at a cement plant in Germany funded by EU Innovation fund, and, even more recently announced, a capture test facility at Knoxville, Tennessee, funded by US DOE. From Silvia Chavez of PEMEX, the national petroleum company, we heard of their interest in CO2-EOR and intention to develop a pilot project. PEMEX also want to develop CCS at their gas processing facilities and new CHP plants, to collaborate with international scientific institutions, and eventually to provide CCS as a service to other industries. We also heard from Ternium, the steel manufacturer, on the market for green steel.

The last World Bank work for Mexico on CCUS was undertaken by Carbon Counts to assess the options for developing regulations (undertaken in 2020-2021), and Paul Zakkour presented those results and recommendations.

For regional perspectives, we also heard from Brazil and Columbia on their CCS activities.

It was an honour to contribute by presenting on International Regulatory Frameworks and on Partnerships and Collaboration (we have so many great examples including the new Global Network of CoEs). Also to moderate the Finance session. Great knowledge sharing and discussions ensued.

International development funding possibilities were shared by Natalia Kulichenko (World Bank), Riccardo Savigliano (UNIDO) and Katherine Romanak (GCCC UT) on GCF. International perspectives were also shared by Jarad Daniels (GCCSI) on international projects, Jon Gibbins (UKCCSRC) on capture technologies, Katherine Romanak (GCCC UT) on storage, and Doug Rae (1Point5) on their DAC projects.

Credit to Jazmín Mota-Nieto and her MeCCS Mexican Carbon Capture and Storage Platform team for putting this event together, and to Adrián Ruiz Carvajal at SENER for co-hosting. Great CCS leaders! For more information see Carbon Visions | MeCCS and Home | MeCCS.