Fianzas y Seguros CRYA
Reform for PEMEX to Increase Environmental Efforts
In an effort to increase PEMEX´s ESG efforts, the Senate approved a reform allowing the NOC to prioritize environmental measures.
This initiative pressures PEMEX to carry out the exploration, extraction and production of its hydrocarbons, prioritizing environmental protection through climate change mitigation and adaptation measures, according to Congress members.
Furthermore, the reform indicates that the state-owned company’s Administrative Council will need to make the necessary adjustments to its Organic Bylaw and issue a guideline and strategy program to implement mitigation and adaptation of climate change.
“During 2018 and 2019, PEMEX increased its CO2 emissions 32 percent and its sulfur oxide emissions 69 percent” said senator Raúl Bolaño-Cacho, who highlighted the importance of the NOC to make the mitigation of greenhouse gases one of its priorities.
In addition, he said that it is imperative that the government, industries and companies guarantee a healthy environment for all Mexican citizens and that PEMEX “should not be an exception, because it has to reverse its historical emissions and become an example for the rest of the world.”
PEMEX ranks third in the world among oil corporations with major environmental risks, said Sylvana Beltrones Sánchez, PRI senator. Moreover, Beltrones Sánchez explained the urgency to boost decisive mitigation and adaptation efforts within the NOC’S internal structure.
Xóchitl Gálvez PAN senator, in her intervention alerted that scientists from the Public Health Institute (INSP) estimate that in Mexico City´s metropolitan areas 12,000 people die every year due to severe lung damage caused by the pollution generated by the Tula Hidalgo refinery.
Besides the impact PEMEX’s emissions have on the environment and health of people, a lack of adequate ESG plans jeopardize PEMEX’s efforts to attract investment. President López Obrador’s mission to rescue the NOC is facing a major hurdle in the company’s lack of tangible environmental, social and governance goals. Many investors are aware that analysts deemed NOC’s emissions dangerous and employee insecurity to be “extreme” and argue that a solid ESG plan is essential to attract private investments.