Agrégateur de flux

Le procès aux assises de trois Françaises parties en 2014 à Raqqa s'est ouvert lundi à Paris. Parmi elles, figurent Jennyfer Clain, 34 ans, nièce des frères Clain, figures de la propagande du groupe État islamique présumés morts en Syrie. Avec sa belle-mère et sa belle-sœur par alliance, elle encourt 30 ans de réclusion pour association de malfaiteurs terroriste.

Izjava Misije OSCE-a u BiH Željka Šulc

SARAJEVO, 15 September 2025 - On 10 September 2025, at its 16th regular session, the Brčko District Assembly (BDA) adopted the Law on Professional Rehabilitation and Employment of Persons with Disabilities of Brčko District of BiH (BD). With this, the BD has, for the first time in its history, established a clear legislative framework protecting the rights of persons with disabilities in relation to work and employment. The adoption of this law reflects sustained advocacy by the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina (Mission), including consistent technical support to the legislative Working Group.

The Mission considers this a significant step forward in protecting the rights of persons with disabilities and commends the proponents, the legislative body, and all who contributed to the development of this law on this important achievement. Certain elements of the law could be further strengthened, and the Mission will continue to monitor and work with stakeholders to enable its timely and full implementation, as well as any subsequent legislative processes to ensure it meets the needs of persons with disabilities.

The decision, due to budgetary constraints, "is leaving the very farmers who want better animal welfare out in the cold," NGO says

« L'Occident est prêt à tout pour préserver ce système néocolonial qui lui permet de parasiter, de dépouiller en substance le monde au prix de la puissance du dollar et du diktat technologique, de percevoir un véritable tribut de l'humanité, d'extraire la principale source de richesse non méritée, la (...) / États-Unis, Europe, Russie, Crise des valeurs, Géopolitique, Identité culturelle, Impérialisme, Relations internationales - 2022/11

Europe is less attractive than it could be because funding isn’t being coordinated enough, a new Commission strategy warns

Geedge Networks has commercialized China’s Great Firewall for export, and Astana was an ideal customer.

With half the population overweight, and 18% obese, Belgium wants to make overeating as unpopular as smoking

It's another worrying sign that the Trump administration is shifting its military strategy away from deterrence – and increasing the likelihood of nuclear war.

Die Vereinigten Staaten wollen sich als zentraler Energieversorger etablieren – nicht nur für Europa.

L'invasion de l'Ukraine par la Russie a provoqué une déflagration parmi les intellectuels dont l'espace postsoviétique est le centre d'intérêt, mettant en question l'orientation d'une œuvre, voire d'une vie. Grand traducteur de la littérature russe, André Markowicz veut espérer que le choc de la guerre (...) / Russie, Ukraine, Conflit, Géopolitique, Histoire, Impérialisme, Nationalisme, Politique, Relations internationales, Relations bilatérales - 2022/11

En prélude à la session de renforcement des capacités organisée à leur intention à Cotonou, les journalistes des États membres de l'Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine (UEMOA) se sont retrouvés ce dimanche 14 septembre 2025 au siège du quotidien L'Économiste du Bénin. Cette rencontre informelle est une initiative du coordonnateur de la Plateforme des médias de l'UEMOA.

Ambiamce détendue et fraternelle
entre consœurs de la presse

Dans une ambiance conviviale et sans protocole, les journalistes venus des huit pays membres de l'Union ont partagé un cocktail au siège du journal béninois. L'objectif : souhaiter la bienvenue aux confrères et créer un climat d'échange avant le démarrage officiel du séminaire.

Initiée par Loénard Dossou, coordonnateur de la Plateforme des médias de l'UEMOA, cette soirée sans protocole a permis aux professionnels de la presse économique de partager un moment de convivialité autour d'un cocktail. « Il n'y a ni discours ni cérémonie officielle. L'idée, c'est simplement de se retrouver et d'échanger avant le séminaire », a-t-il confié.

La rencontre a été rehaussée par la présence d'Arzouma Yendu-Bé BABAKAN, Directeur de la Communication de la Commission de l'UEMOA, qui a salué l'initiative et soutenu le format décontracté voulu par les organisateurs.

Les journalistes savourent
des spécialités locales

Ce moment d'échange a permis aux journalistes de renforcer les liens entre confrères et de poser les bases d'une collaboration plus étroite au sein de l'espace UEMOA. La session de formation, qui s'est ouverte ce lundi 15 septembre à l'hôtel Azalaï de Cotonou, porte sur les politiques économiques, la gouvernance, les indicateurs de performance et les grands chantiers de l'Union.

A Sodohomè, une localité de la commune de Bohicon, deux jeunes adolescents ont perdu la vie lors d'une opération de gonflage de pneu d'un camion Titan dans la soirée de ce dimanche 14 septembre 2025.

Tragédie à Bohicon ce dimanche 14 septembre 2025. Deux jeunes adolescents ont perdu la vie lors d'une opération de gonflage de pneu. Les victimes, selon des sources concordantes, ont été sollicitées par le conducteur du véhicule pour l'aider à amener le pneu défectueux dans un atelier de vulcanisation. Au moment de l'opération de gonflage, le pneu éclate et projette violemment les deux adolescents qui décèdent sur place.
Le patron de l'atelier, présent au moment du drame, s'en est sorti indemne. La police aussitôt alertée, s'est dépêchée sur les lieux. Une enquête est ouverte à l'effet de situer les responsabilités.

F. A. A.

Ulf Kristersson a accusé son homologue hongrois de mentir après que ce dernier a qualifié la Suède de pays tombé dans la « barbarie » en raison de la criminalité des mineurs.

The post Le Premier ministre suédois répond aux accusations d’« effondrement » de l’ordre public portées par la Viktor Orbán appeared first on Euractiv FR.

Ce dimanche 14 septembre 2025, trois corps sans vie des individus appartenant à des groupes armés ont été découverts dans les localités de Nassiconzi et de Dangazzi, dans la commune de Kalalé. Ces découvertes ont été faites après l'opération de poursuite engagée par les Forces de défense et de sécurité (FDS), après l'attaque du commissariat mercredi 10 septembre dernier.

Les Forces de défense et de sécurité plus déterminés à contrer la menace terroriste au Bénin. L'opération de poursuite engagée après l'attaque du commissariat de Kalalé mercredi 10 septembre 2025, a permis de neutraliser plusieurs assaillants. Des corps sans vie ont été découverts ce dimanche 14 septembre à Nassiconzi et à Dangazzi. Il s'agit selon des sources dignes de foi, des corps de terroristes qui avaient attaqué le commissariat de la localité.
Au cours de cette attaque, l'armée est intervenue avec des hélicoptères et des troupes au sol.
Plusieurs civils dont des membres du personnel soignant de l'hôpital de Kalalé ont été enlevés. Certains, apprend-on, ont été retrouvés. D'autres par contre, sont sans nouvelles. Mais les recherches sont en cours.
L'opération de poursuite engagée par les Forces de sécurité se poursuit.

F. A. A.

Contrairement à ce que pensent certains acteurs, le Bénin selon Blaise Ahouantchédé, expert financier international n'est pas un pays très endetté. Il a exposé ses analyses sur la dette publique du Bénin lors de l'émission Entretien du dimanche de Eden TV, ce 14 septembre 2025.

Sur la problématique de la dette du Bénin, Blaise Ahouantchédé, expert financier international pense qu'il faut relativiser les choses. Le Bénin d'après lui, n'est pas un pays isolé. Il fonctionne dans un environnement intégré et lié à son appartenance à l'Union économique et monétaire Ouest africaine (l'UEMOA), la Communauté économique des Etats de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (CEDEAO), la Banque centrale des Etats de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (BCEAO), et les relations avec ses partenaires techniques et financiers (PTF), qui veillent à accompagner la politique d'investissement. La dette insiste-t-il, est une question relative. Et au regard des chiffres du Bénin, l'on ne peut affirmer que le pays est très endetté. Le niveau de la dette du Bénin, en deçà de la norme communautaire selon l'expert, n'a pas dépassé les 53%, 54%, alors qu'il y a des pays qui ont déjà atteint le seuil de 100% voire 120% par rapport au PIB.
Pour Blaise Ahouantchédé, ce qui devrait intéresser, c'est l'usage qui est fait de la dette. Et dans ce sens, le Bénin s'est-il réjoui, dispose des instruments de contrôle et des institutions de contrôle de l'action publique. « Il suffit de s'assurer que l'argent qu'on emprunte, on va le rembourser. Ce n'est jamais un problème de s'endetter. Le plus important c'est de savoir si on a une bonne signature, si on peut toujours continuer à s'endetter de manière indéfinie, et pendant plusieurs générations. Et pour ça, il faut maintenir un niveau de gestion en respectant toute l'orthodoxie financière de la chose publique comme c'est actuellement le cas au Bénin », a laissé entendre l'ex directeur général de GIM-UEMOA.

F. A. A.

Author: Wendy Kwaku Yeboah is a PhD candidate in EU law at the University of Bologna, with a particular focus on EU health law and its digitalisation. Her research explores the regulation of cross-border telemedicine within the framework of the EU internal market, examining both the constitutional and operational dimensions of EU health governance. She investigates how EU law shapes access to healthcare across borders, the challenges of ensuring patient safety and data protection in digital health services, and the evolving role of the Court of Justice of the European Union in this field.

This piece builds on my doctoral research and reflects the presentation I gave at a EUHealthGov panel during the UACES 2025 conference. I am grateful to the EUHealthGov network for providing financial support for my participation, and to all panel participants for their valuable contributions to the discussion. Any errors are solely my responsibility.

Telemedicine moved from niche to necessary during COVID-19. The EU has since built important pieces of a digital health architecture – but cross-border care still runs into legal grey zones and uneven infrastructure. Here’s what works, what doesn’t, and what to fix next.

Why telemedicine matters now

The pandemic turbo-charged digital care and exposed long-standing weaknesses in health systems. Backed by unprecedented EU recovery funding, telemedicine has become a mainstream complement to in-person services – linking patients and clinicians across distance and time. But when care crosses borders, telemedicine stops being just a technical solution and becomes a legal, ethical, and governance stress test for the internal market.

What counts as telemedicine (and why definition matters)

Telemedicine is not one thing. It spans teleconsultation, telediagnosis, remote monitoring, and tele-expertise, often threaded with AI-enabled tools. This multifunctionality puts it at the crossroads of health policy, the internal market, and fundamental rights. Member States retain control over how they organise and finance care; the EU leans on internal-market powers to harmonise the digital rails (data protection, digital identity, AI). The result? An innovation that is inherently cross-border is governed by rules that are still mostly national.

The EU’s legal framework for telemedicine rests on solid principles but remains weak in practice. The Court of Justice has long confirmed that healthcare falls under the free movement of services, and Directive 2011/24/EU established the foundations for patient mobility, supported by mechanisms such as National Contact Points and the eHealth Network. Yet the directive was not designed with digital care in mind and leaves unresolved key issues like quality standards, liability, interoperability, cybersecurity, and AI-assisted decision-making. As a result, much is left to national discretion, creating a fragmented landscape that complicates life for both providers and patients.

EHDS: building the backbone, not the whole body

The European Health Data Space (EHDS) Regulation is a potential game-changer for telemedicine’s plumbing. By standardising formats and enabling secure access to electronic health records (and, progressively, imaging, labs, and discharge reports), it tackles one of the biggest blockers: data that won’t travel.

But the EHDS is infrastructure, not a telemedicine code. It doesn’t settle who is responsible when care goes wrong, how AI recommendations fit with clinical judgment, or how remote-only practice should be accredited. One telling sign: a clause that would have actively promoted cross-border telemedicine fell out during negotiations.

Data and ethics: where the rubber meets the road

Telemedicine runs on sensitive data. GDPR provides a common floor, but national overlays (medical secrecy, access rules, secondary-use controls) differ widely. In practice, providers face divergent consent models, storage requirements, and audit expectations.

Layer in the AI Act and the stakes rise. High-risk health AI must meet transparency, traceability, and human-oversight requirements. That is good for trust, but unresolved in cross-border settings are basic questions: Which authority supervises? How is accountability shared between clinician, institution, and vendor when an algorithm errs? How do we preserve clinical judgment without neutering useful automation?

Ethically, telemedicine can strain informed consent and continuity of care, and—without inclusive design—amplify digital divides for older adults, rural communities, and people with disabilities.

Cross-border telemedicine still faces stubborn obstacles. Liability and jurisdiction remain unclear when adverse outcomes arise, often relying on ad hoc contracts that cannot scale. Professional qualifications are mutually recognised in theory, yet remote-only practice is frequently caught in national grey zones or subject to extra conditions. Reimbursement rules, designed for physical travel, rarely fit virtual care, leaving both patients and providers in doubt. On top of this, uneven digital infrastructure—ranging from electronic health record maturity to coding standards and connectivity—makes even routine cross-border consultations technically complex and unequal.

A realistic way forward (that could start tomorrow)

No grand telemedicine regulation is likely adopted overnight. But the EU and Member States can take pragmatic steps that add up. My research suggests we need a three-pronged approach.

First, targeted telemedicine-specific reforms. We can’t keep expecting a directive that merely mentions telemedicine to govern its complex cross-border realities. We need clear liability frameworks for cross-border care, harmonized professional recognition for digital practice, and coherent reimbursement standards specifically designed for virtual care.

Second, rights-based innovation. The solution isn’t choosing between innovation and patient protection – it’s designing systems that deliver both. We need telemedicine frameworks that enhance rather than replace clinical judgment, data governance that enables sharing while protecting privacy, and digital tools that reduce rather than increase health inequalities.

Third, coordinated but targeted implementation. Yes, the European Health Data Space will help with infrastructure, but we cannot mistake better data sharing for comprehensive telemedicine governance. We need telemedicine-specific interpretations of the GDPR and AI Act to avoid regulatory confusion.

Here’s my central argument: The EU stands at a crossroads. We can either continue with our current fragmented approach and watch telemedicine’s transformative potential slip away, or we can seize this moment to build a truly integrated Digital Health Union.

The bottom line

In conclusion, the pandemic taught us that health crises don’t respect borders. Our coordinated European response showed us that cooperation saves lives. Now, as we build back better, we must ensure our legal frameworks are as innovative as the technologies they govern.

Telemedicine is now a central pillar of European healthcare – not a pilot project. The EU has assembled critical pieces (GDPR, AI Act, EHDS), but they amount to an incomplete kit for cross-border care. To unlock the internal market’s advantages without compromising patient rights, the EU needs a tighter weave between infrastructure and rules: clear liability and jurisdictional defaults, workable accreditation for remote practice, interoperable data that clinicians can actually use, and reimbursement that follows patients – not borders.

Get those elements right, and telemedicine can deliver what it promised in the pandemic’s crucible: resilient, inclusive, and truly European care.

 

 

The post Cross-Border Telemedicine in the EU: Promise, Pitfalls, and the Path Ahead appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

Hungary may be the first U.S. ally in Europe for whom decoupling from China is not simply difficult, but virtually impossible.

Opinion polls show that the majority of the U.S. population holds positive views on immigration. Credit: Shutterstock.

By Joseph Chamie
PORTLAND, USA, Sep 15 2025 (IPS)

Most of the population in this country wants immigrants, but the current government does not share the same sentiment. The country in question is the United States, often referred to as “a nation of immigrants”, home to more immigrants than any other country worldwide, having received over 100 million immigrants since its founding in 1776.

Opinion polls show that the majority of the U.S. population holds positive views on immigration. A national survey conducted in June revealed a record high of 79% of U.S. adults considering immigration beneficial for the country, with 17% viewing it negatively (Figure 1).

 

Source: Gallup Poll.

 

The poll also found that 62% of U.S. adults disapprove of the president’s hardline immigration enforcement measures. Specifically, a majority of the U.S. public opposes immigration arrests in protected areas such as places of worship, schools, hospitals, and clinics.

Opinion polls show that the majority of the U.S. population holds positive views on immigration. A national survey conducted in June revealed a record high of 79% of U.S. adults considering immigration beneficial for the country, with 17% viewing it negatively

It is estimated that the current government authorities have deported at least 180,000 people so far. By the start of August, the number of deportations is reported to have reached close to 1,500 people per day.

Analyses of recent census data show that in the first seven months of 2025, the U.S. foreign-born population declined significantly, estimated to be between 1.5 million and 2.2 million.

The foreign-born population decreased from 53.3 million immigrants, a record high representing 15.8% of the U.S. population, to 51.9 million immigrants or 15.4% of the country’s population, with other estimates of the decline even lower at 51.1 million. The drop in the foreign-born population marked the first decline in the country’s immigrant population since the 1960s.

Many in the U.S., estimated to be about a third of the population, have expressed agreement with the general principle of deporting undocumented migrants, especially those who have committed violent crimes.

However, a national opinion poll conducted in late June found that the majority of the U.S. population, 54%, believe the government’s immigrant enforcement program has “gone too far” with their methods and tactics being extreme, aggressive, and heavy-handed.

Additionally, 78% of the U.S. population favor providing pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already living in the country, with the proportion rising to 85% for immigrant children.

The proportion of U.S. adults who want immigration to remain at its current level is 38%, while 26% would like to see it increased. In contrast, 30% prefer a reduction in immigration (Figure 2).

 

Source: Gallup Poll.

 

Another survey found that 60% of the U.S. population disapprove of the suspension of most asylum applications and the termination of Temporary Protected Status. Many have objected to the administration’s steps to block access to the asylum process, which is in violation of U.S. law.

Additionally, on his first day in office, the U.S. president issued an executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship for babies of undocumented immigrants and individuals with temporary status in the country.

If birthright citizenship were to end in the U.S., it would impact an estimated 6% of the country’s annual births, or about 225,000 babies born in the country each year.

However, a national survey conducted in June revealed that 68% of registered U.S. voters actually support birthright citizenship, which was established by the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1868.

Section 1 of the amendment states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside”. The president’s executive order ending birthright citizenship has become a significant legal battle for the country and will likely be decided by the Supreme Court.

The current administration considers all undocumented immigrants living in the country as criminals and has falsely claimed that undocumented migrants are responsible for the rise in crime, despite data showing crime rates have been decreasing.

It is important to note that being in the United States illegally is a civil violation, not a criminal one. Many undocumented immigrants who have been arrested have not been convicted of a crime.

In June, the Supreme Court ruled that the administration could resume expedited deportations of migrants to countries that are not their places of origin, referred to as third-country deportations. The administration has reached agreements with countries like Honduras, Rwanda, and Uganda to accept deported migrants who are not their own citizens.

These agreements allow for redirecting asylum-seekers to countries that are not their own if the U.S. government believes these nations can fairly assess their claims for humanitarian protection.

Confusingly, the U.S. president recently ordered a “new” population census that excludes undocumented immigrants.

This is a historic demand, considering the U.S. has counted every person in its census for over 230 years, dating back to 1790. During his first term, the president tried to alter the country’s decennial population census by adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census, but the Supreme Court blocked it.

The U.S. Census Bureau projects that approximately one million immigrants per year will drive the country’s population growth throughout the rest of the 21st century. The nation’s fertility rate, at 1.63 births per woman in 2024, is expected to remain well below the replacement level in the coming decades.

By mid-century, immigration is expected to contribute twice as many people to the U.S. population as natural increase. According to the main series population projection, by 2080, the current U.S. population of 342 million is projected to reach nearly 370 million (Figure 3).

 

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

 

However, without future immigrants and fertility remaining below replacement, the U.S. population is projected to decline as deaths soon begin to outnumber births. The Congressional Budget Office expects deaths to exceed births by 2031.

By the end of the 21st century, the Census Bureau estimates that without immigration the country will experience nearly 2 million more deaths than births. The U.S. population in the zero immigration scenario is expected to decline to about 226 million, or approximately 116 million fewer people in 2100 than today.

The United States is currently experiencing a significant need for workers across various sectors of the economy, including agriculture, construction, healthcare, hospitality and manufacturing.

Immigrant workers are seen as crucial in filling these labor shortages, especially for jobs such as farmworkers that the native-born U.S. population typically does not want to do.

Many economists have emphasized that immigration is a vital component of a healthy U.S. economy. The president’s deportation and tariff policies are believed to be contributing to an inflationary shock to the economy.

Immigration can help reduce inflation, strengthen manufacturing and increase employment rates. The chair of the Federal Reserve has indicated that the president’s stricter immigration policies are one of the reasons U.S. economic growth has slowed.

In addition to filling job vacancies, immigrant workers also contribute to the growth of the country’s economy and boost tax revenue. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that immigration growth will add $1.2 trillion in federal revenue over the period from 2024 to 2034.

The U.S. population is expected to undergo significant demographic ageing in the coming decades. By 2035, the number of people in the U.S. aged 65 years or older is projected to exceed the number of children under the age of 18.

As the U.S. population ages, the number of working-age individuals per retired person is decreasing. In 1975, the potential dependency ratio of those aged 20 to 64 years old per person aged 65 years or older was slightly over five. Currently, the dependency ratio is about three and is expected to decline to two by 2075. Without future immigration, the U.S. dependency ratio is projected to be approximately 1.5 by 2075.

In summary, it is clear that the majority of the population in the United States supports immigration, while the government does not. Despite the widespread backing for immigration and the substantial demographic, economic, and social impacts of immigration, the new administration is concentrating on significantly decreasing immigration. They have put in place policies, initiated programs, and issued executive actions to achieve this objective.

Joseph Chamie is a consulting demographer, a former director of the United Nations Population Division, and author of various publications on population issues, including his recent book, “Population Levels, Trends, and Differentials”.

 

A wind farm in the state of Baja California, in Northwestern Mexico. This territory depends on fossil fuels for electricity generation, while the contribution of renewables is still low, but it is gradually moving towards residential solar generation. Credit: Sempra

By Emilio Godoy
MEXICO, Sep 15 2025 (IPS)

Over the past four months, Mexican researcher Nicolás Velázquez has paid around US$23 for electricity, thanks to the photovoltaic system installed in his home in the northern city of Mexicali.

“You can see the direct benefit. My neighbor received a bill over US$400. The problem is the high temperatures, which double demand” from March to August, said Velázquez, coordinator of the  Center for Renewable Energy Studies at the Engineering Institute of the public Autonomous University of Baja California.

Due to the high temperatures in cities such as Mexicali, capital of the northwestern state of Baja California, people need air conditioning systems during the summer, which increases electricity consumption in a state with 3.77 million inhabitants, affected by a shortage of infrastructure and generation.“Distributed generation is better for us. It is done by Mexican companies. We import the technology, but there is a chain of Mexican participation. We participate from engineering onwards, activating the economy to a certain level, helping the residential sector”–Nicolás Velázquez.

In late August, residents of several neighborhoods in Mexicali blocked the highway between that city and neighboring Tijuana due to a lack of electricity.

In an attempt to alleviate the situation, the Mexican government launched the Techos Solares del Bienestar (Solar Roofs for Welfare) program in March, aimed at low-income homeowners who pay high rates and consume between 400 and 1,000 kilowatt hours between July and August, so they receive solar panels for their homes in Mexicali and the neighboring municipality of San Felipe.

It is one of the steps to relaunch the energy transition to less polluting sources that the previous government halted in 2018.

The initial plan is to install solar panels in 5,500 homes in Mexicali with an investment of around US$10 million. The ultimate goal is to cover 150,000 homes by 2030. The scheme promises to reduce electricity bills from 49% to 89%.

For Velázquez, the central question revolves around the advisability of resorting to centralized or distributed generation, which consists of electricity production by systems of many small generation sources close to the end consumer.

“Distributed generation is better for us. It is done by Mexican companies. We import the technology, but there is a chain of Mexican participation. We participate from engineering onwards, activating the economy to a certain level, helping the residential sector,” he said from Mexicali.

In his opinion, “there has to be a balance between centralized and distributed generation, because there will not be a single solution. More energy justice is achieved through distributed generation.”

In Mexico, home to some 129 million people, there are at least 12,000 communities without electricity and some 9,000 homes without connection to the national grid, a quarter of which are located in Mexicali, which had 1.05 million inhabitants according to the 2020 census.

Small-scale or distributed generation is on the rise in the country.

Since 2007, the government’s Energy Regulatory Commission has authorized 518,019 licenses for a distributed energy generation capacity of 4,497 megawatts (MW). In 2024, it approved 106,934 interconnections for 1,086 MW.

The western state of Jalisco and the northern states of Nuevo León and Chihuahua top the list, while Baja California ranks 14th among the 32 Mexican states.

In July, the government’s National Energy Commission updated the regulations for interconnected self-consumption for installations between 0.7 and 20 MW, which expands the margin for distributed generation, also known as citizen generation.

Solar panels in a community in the municipality of Ensenada, in the northwestern state of Baja California. The existing microgrid in that town provides electricity to the small community. Credit: Secihti

More promises

The energy policy of president Claudia Sheinbaum, in office since October 1, has so far been marked more by proposals than by concrete actions, and Baja California is no exception to this dynamic.

Her government will allocate US$12.3 billion for electricity generation, US$7.5 billion for transmission infrastructure, and US$3.6 billion for decentralized photovoltaic production in homes.

The plan would add 21,893 MW to the national energy matrix, reaching 37.8% clean energy from the current 22.5%, so that the state-owned Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) would hold 54% of the market, with the rest going to private and individual entities.

On August 26, the president announced the construction of two solar thermal plants in the state of Baja California Sur, which shares a peninsula with Baja California, with a public investment of US$800 million to generate more than 100 MW. The territory is also isolated from the national grid and suffers from a chronic energy deficit.

Solar thermal energy converts solar radiation into electricity using mirrors to generate steam and drive turbines, as well as enabling energy storage.

The CFE plans to tender phase II of the Puerto Peñasco photovoltaic plant, in the town of the same name in the northern state of Sonora, with a capacity of 300 MW and 10.3 MW of battery backup. The first 120 MW phase of this facility has been operating since 2023. Completed in 2026, it will contribute 1,000 MW at a cost of US$1.6 billion.

However, the Mexican government continues to promote fossil fuels, despite the urgency of phasing them out, as it seeks to strengthen the CFE and the state-owned Petróleos Mexicanos.

All of this impacts places such as Baja California, where 16 public and private power plants operate, with an installed capacity of 3,461 MW, including three wind farms with more than 300 MW of capacity and three solar farms with 50 MW.

The private company Sempra Infraestructura, a subsidiary of the US company Sempra, is building a wind farm with a capacity of 300 MW, which is expected to be operational in 2026. In addition, CFE operates a 340 MW geothermal plant.

Despite its shortcomings, the state exports around 1,100 MW to the neighboring US state of California and imports around 400 MW. Baja California could produce 6,550 MW of solar power, 3,495 MW of wind power, and 2,000 MW of geothermal power.

In addition, CFE is building two combined-cycle power plants in Baja California that burn gas and generate steam to drive turbines, which would reduce blackouts.

The country faces insufficient production to meet annual demand growth of about 4% and an obsolete power grid.

In the first half of 2025, the country generated 310.49 terawatt-hours, virtually the same as during the same period last year. Some sources, such as gas, hydroelectric, wind, and photovoltaic, increased, but others, such as thermoelectric and nuclear, decreased.

In Mexico, electricity generation depends mainly on fossil gas, followed by hydroelectricity and nuclear energy. Renewable sources have a capacity of 33,517 MW, but only contribute one-fifth of the electricity produced.

Energy map of the northern Mexican state of Baja California. Electricity generation is not enough to meet growing demand, causing frequent blackouts. Credit: Government of Baja California

New schemes

Baja California’s 2022-2027 Energy Program consists of four strategies, including providing access to electricity to remote communities and unregulated housing, as well as promoting the rapid transition to decarbonization and the use of clean energies.

In addition, it envisions eight outcomes, including the promotion of two annual microgrid power generation projects for isolated communities and a 3% increase in alternative electricity generation. However, there is no evidence of progress toward these goals.

If it so desired, the Mexican government could transform its national electricity subsidy of more than US$5 billion annually into distributed generation.

The Universal Electricity Service Fund is a case in point. Intended to cover marginalized communities, available data indicate that it has covered more than 1,000 municipalities out of a total of 2,469, including two in Baja California, since 2019.

Velázquez proposed that these funds could finance solar panels and microgrids.

“Year after year, they give a subsidy, but if these families were provided with a photovoltaic system, it would solve the problem at its root. We need to look for more far-reaching measures; the actions have to be different,” he said.

In December 2023, during the climate summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Mexico joined the Global Renewables and Energy Efficiency Pledge, which consists of tripling alternative installed capacity and doubling the energy efficiency rate by 2030. In comparison, Sheinbaum’s plans fall short.