Whose energy sovereignty? Competing imaginaries of Mexico's energy future

Abstract

Mexico started down a path toward renewable energy in 2013 when the central government set ambitious targets for clean energy and carbon emissions through long-term electricity auctions and clean energy licenses. In 2018, these efforts came to a drastic halt when President López Obrador was elected. Since then, efforts to transition to renewable have been stalled, and even reversed to some extent. At this moment of fundamental political, societal, and technical uncertainty, different futures are being debated. On the basis of 24 narrative interviews conducted with experts in the Mexican energy sector and extensive document analysis, we discuss how energy futures are imagined in different assemblages of institutions, technologies, and political power. Notions of energy sovereignty take central stage in discourses employed by actors seeking to materialize their imaginaries. Using the sociotechnical imaginaries framework, we identify and discuss both the dominant imaginaries and three counter-imaginaries, as well as their expression within notions of energy sovereignty. We conclude that this politicization may present an opportunity to include broader notions of energy sovereignty in imaginaries of energy futures.