Cop 27: Mexico to launch updated NDC

Mexico will increase its emissions reduction target from a disputed goal set in 2020 as part of an updated climate plan it will present at the ongoing Cop 27 UN climate summit, the environment ministry said.

Mexico now aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30pc by 2030 from a 2000 baseline, up from a previous target of a 22pc reduction by the same year, set in 2020.

The country has also raised its conditional emissions reduction target — depending on outside financial support — to 40pc from 36pc previously set.

The reduction of black carbon emissions remains at an unconstitutional 51pc and 70pc percent conditioned by 2030, the ministry said.

Further details of Mexico's NDC and any changes in targets for reducing methane emissions were not available.

Mexico last updated its NDC two years ago when it committed to cut emissions by 22pc by 2030 and by 50pc by 2050, also against a 2005 baseline. But the government that year raised the level of its business-as-usual emissions scenario in 2020, effectively increasing its planned CO2 emissions in absolute terms.

Environmental and climate groups criticized the plan and Greenpeace filed a legal complaint against the reduced targets in a Mexican court. A court suspended the NDC, pending appeals.

Under the Glasgow climate pact agreed at last year's UN Cop 26 climate conference, parties were requested "to revisit and strengthen the 2030 targets in their nationally determined contributions as necessary to align with the Paris Agreement temperature goal by the end of 2022".