The “Global Stocktake” or global balance sheet of the Paris Agreement adopted at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP28) showed that the world is not on track to limit global warming to 1.5°C and, therefore, requires greater ambition and climate action, which must be reflected in the presentation of the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).
NDCs are climate action plans within the framework of the Paris Agreement, an international treaty that seeks countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
On the way to the thirtieth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (COP30), countries are expected to submit the update of their NDCs, however, Mexico has not yet joined the 69 countries that have already taken this step, according to the Climate Watch portal.
Andrea Hurtado, general director of Policies for Climate Action at the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat), informed in writing for this article that Mexico will present its NDC 3.0 during COP30, where it will incorporate a section to address the losses and damages caused by climate change.
Although adding a section may be an important step for Mexico to move forward in terms of climate and social justice, if policies and funding are not established, it may not be implemented, according to civil society.
Dealing with loss and damage is social justice
Alicia Bárcena, head of Semarnat at the Climate Summit in New York. Source: Government of Mexico.
“There can be no climate justice without social justice and equality,” said Alicia Bárcena, head of Semarnat during the Climate Summit held in New York in September 2025.
Loss and damage are the negative effects of climate change that occur despite or lack of adaptation and mitigation efforts.
“Losses are things that we cannot recover and damages are those that can be managed or recovered in some way,” explained Adrián Martínez, director of La Ruta del Clima, a Latin American organization focused on political advocacy against climate change.
However, despite the fact that in the current NDC there is an adaptation section, which is crucial for preventing and minimizing the damage of climate change, Mexico does not have a National Adaptation Plan to implement it. According to Semarnat, this instrument is under construction and will submit a first draft in August 2026.
In this context, we talk about social justice because communities that have been historically and systematically marginalized are more vulnerable to loss and damage.
“In Mexico, as in Central America, there are many indigenous, agricultural or fishing communities that depend on their relationship with the land or the ocean to survive, and that have been dispossessed by industrial exploitation, tourism, or violence, and now climate change is harming them even more. They have the right to seek redress for that damage that occurs as a result of profit to generate carbon emissions,” Martínez said.
In accordance with principle seven of the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, States have common but differentiated responsibilities, since developed countries have contributed to a greater extent to the environmental degradation of the planet.
“The emissions were not generated by them (developing countries) so that they have to face the consequences, but they are violated by a structural system that is voracious in terms of climate change,” said Anjani Punjabi, a Mexican climate activist at Tierra Nuestra and Greenpeace, and co-coordinator of the Local Youth Conference (LCOY).
For example, in Mexico, one of the sectors most affected by climate change is fishing, since the degradation of marine and coastal ecosystems generates a reduction in biodiversity and productivity, with cultural and economic impacts on rural coastal communities that depend on fishing and that face high levels of marginalization, according to the organization Community and Biodiversity (COBI).
“The most profound impacts transcend any monetary calculation. It is almost impossible to quantify the loss of traditional knowledge, of ancient fishing practices or of the social fabric that supports the identity of coastal communities. These intangible damages (cultural, emotional and community) represent one of the most painful and least recognized dimensions of climate change,” COBI said through a questionnaire written for this article.
But one of the most important challenges is the refusal of countries in the global north - which are the largest emitters of greenhouse gases - to assume their responsibility to repair losses and damages.
“This is a sign of structural violence, and if (the major emitting countries) they never have consequences due to the adverse effects of climate change that are the product of economic activities, they will never change. We have to get involved in the fight to reform international climate governance that has to start from law, obligations and responsibilities,” Martínez said.
Expectations for the new component
Mexico is warming faster (3.2°C per century) than the world average (2°C per century). 87% of disaster declarations between 2018 and 2024 are attributed to hydrometeorological phenomena, with a cumulative impact of 138 billion pesos, according to information provided by Semarnat.
He also acknowledged that a comprehensive study has not been carried out to measure the losses and damages of climate change.
In any case, it is expected that the incorporation of the loss and damage component in NDC 3.0 will facilitate the mobilization of resources for this task, in particular, through the Santiago Network, which offers assistance in this area, and the Fund for Losses and Damages.
The component will incorporate emergencies and disasters associated with climate change and humanitarian action; risk transfer and retention; reconstruction with a focus on risk prevention and resilience; human mobility linked to the impacts of climate change; and economic and non-economic losses, according to Hurtado de la Semarnat.
After this, there should be judicial and administrative mechanisms, such as public policies, regulations and laws that promote and facilitate the redress of climate change.
“There has to be planning not only of what is going to be done, but also of how it is going to be financed and to have indicators to measure losses and damages. It is a country's obligation to ensure people's human rights with regard to the reparation of damages and losses and if that involves planning or changing its positions at the national and international levels, then that is something that has to be visualized in the NDC and cannot be left unprotected,” Martínez said.
Likewise, the repair of damages must be in accordance with the needs of each context, and with the participation of the people affected so that it is a comprehensive reparation.
In addition, they must provide differentiated, fair and transparent financial instruments, according to José Morales, manager of Climate Change and Biodiversity at the Climate Initiative of Mexico, an organization dedicated to catalyzing federal climate ambition.
Challenges and opportunities at COP30
The next COP30 to be held from November 10 to 21 in Brazil will address the issue of indicators to measure global adaptation progress and climate finance, specifically to repair losses and damage; finance the energy transition and adaptation measures.
According to Punjabi, one of the critical points will be the recognition of non-quantifiable losses and damages - such as cultural and biodiversity loss - since, otherwise, progress will be partial on this issue.
This report was produced within the framework of Climate Tracker Latin America's COP30 coverage program, with support from Oxfam.
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