Proposed Reforms to Mexico’s General Law of Ecological Equilibrium and Environmental Protection

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On Aug. 26, 2026, the Federal Executive submitted to the Mexican Congress a bill containing a draft decree to enact a new General Law of Ecological Balance and Environmental Protection (LGEEPA), which would replace the legislation in force since 1988.

The proposal was promoted by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) as an effort to strengthen the legislation on ecosystem and biodiversity restoration and conservation, pollution prevention and management, and climate change. The most relevant amendments and additions are summarized below. 

I. General Provisions on the Use and Exploitation of Natural Resources

A specific chapter is created for new General Provisions establishing a more detailed regime that the competent authorities must observe when granting permits, licenses, authorizations, or concession titles in environmental matters, with no counterpart in the prior legislation.

This new framework conditions the granting of such instruments on an evaluation that prioritizes the best interests of the environment. However, no specific criteria are provided to define the parameters that make up the best interests of the environment, so it is left to the authority’s discretion to determine when an applicant lacks sufficient elements to guarantee environmental protection while carrying out its activities. In addition, the law expressly prohibits positive administrative silence (afirmativa ficta) and any provision that presumes a favorable decision from the mere passage of time, both for environmental impact matters and under the general environmental permitting regime.

II. Safety and Precautionary Measures

The chapter is renamed “Precautionary and Safety Measures,” and the principles of prevention, precaution, in favor of nature, and “enhanced due diligence” are expressly incorporated as criteria guiding the authority’s actions, which represent a more demanding standard with a greater margin of discretion.

The catalog of safety measures would significantly expand through the incorporation of measures that were not expressly contemplated in the prior legislation, including the following:

• Suspension (not only closure) of concessions, licenses, permits, or authorizations;
• Repackaging, treatment, or sending of hazardous waste to confinement;
• Repatriation or destruction of genetically modified organisms at the expense of the interested party’
• Request for custody of real-estate folios before the Public Registry of Property; this is a new mechanism that may affect the registry availability of a property for the duration of the proceeding; and
• Removal or demolition of infrastructure, coordinated with civil protection authorities.

III. Integration of the Federal Environmental Liability Law and the Infractions Procedure

New Article 254 provides that the obligations under the Federal Environmental Liability Law (LFRA) would be enforceable through the infractions procedure regulated in the LGEEPA. Consequently, the resolution of the infractions procedure must include “the determination of environmental liability that, if applicable, has been established,” the order of priority, and the remediation or (exceptionally) compensation measures; in other words, the administrative authority decides on environmental liability as part of the same act, without necessarily waiting for the LFRA judicial route.

Along the same lines, under the new Chapter IX, “Determination and Economic Valuation of Environmental Damage,” the environmental enforcement authority would comprehensively determine the damage and carry out the economic valuation of the loss of ecosystem services, applying the “in favor of nature” principle and following the methodology for the economic valuation of environmental damage prepared by the National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change, which must be published in the Official Gazette of the Federation (Diario Oficial de la Federación). This would formalize a damage quantification methodology within the LGEEPA.

IV. Self-Regulation, Audits, and Environmental Badges

The title of the section is amended to expressly incorporate “Environmental Quality and Sustainability Badges and Seals,” thereby expressly recognizing certification and environmental badges and seals as instruments that identify processes, products, goods, or services that comply with applicable environmental regulations, demonstrate a significant improvement in environmental quality, and generate environmental benefits that contribute to the goals of environmental policy; the purpose of the badges and seals is to provide the public with truthful information on compliance with sustainability and environmental quality standards and criteria.

In addition, SEMARNAT is expressly empowered to apply precautionary measures against environmental auditors where there are indications of falsification, and to suspend or cancel their accreditation, which implies greater oversight of the environmental consulting and auditing market that companies hire.

V. Sanctions Regime and Enforcement

The new law aims to strengthen the sanctions regime. The maximum amount of fines for environmental infractions increases from 50,000 to two million times the Measurement and Update Unit (Unidad de Medida y Actualización, or UMA), while the minimum rises from 30 to 80 times that unit. In addition, the authority in charge of applying them would be restructured: the Federal Attorney’s Office for Environmental Protection becomes the Federal Attorney’s Office for Environmental Justice, and all references to, and powers of, the former in legal and contractual provisions would be understood as referring to the latter.

Another relevant change is the incorporation of an administrative liability regime for legal entities, which has no equivalent in the repealed law and was previously contemplated only in the LFRA. Under this regime, legal entities would be administratively liable not only for failing to comply with their own obligations, but also for infractions and damages attributable to their representatives, administrators, managers, directors, employees, and other persons who exercise functional control over operations, when they act in the exercise of their duties, on behalf of, or under the protection or benefit of the legal entity, or when the harmful conduct is ordered or consented to. Likewise, anyone who resorts to, directs, or hires a third party to commit an infraction may incur administrative and environmental liability, so subcontracting may cease to be a way to transfer environmental risk, potentially making it necessary to strengthen environmental clauses, verify the contractor’s permits, and maintain documented on-site oversight.

In addition, the new LGEEPA would regulate a single administrative procedure, structured in two successive stages: the investigation stage and the infractions stage.

• Administrative Investigation Procedure. It would begin with the order admitting the complaint or, failing that, with the order initiating an investigation on the authority’s own initiative. During this stage, the environmental enforcement authorities may conduct fact-finding visits, inspection or verification acts, monitoring, or investigation. The stage would conclude with a closing order or with a summons order.
• Infractions Procedure. If the summons order is issued, the procedure would continue to the infractions stage. The order would specify the facts, acts, omissions, and probable infractions, and would be served on the alleged infringer in person or by certified mail with return receipt, in observance of the principle of presumption of innocence. From the time of service, the alleged infringer has 15 business days to state its position and submit evidence. Once that period ends, the infringer would have 10 business days to file closing arguments. The procedure would end with a resolution that determines the sanctions, corrective measures, environmental liability, and compliance deadlines.



Previous Law

New Law

CHAPTER IV Administrative Sanctions ARTICLE 171.- Violations of the provisions of this Law, its regulations, and the provisions arising therefrom shall be administratively sanctioned by the Ministry with one or more of the following sanctions: A fine equivalent to 30-50,000 days of the general minimum wage in force in the Federal District at the time the sanction is imposed; Temporary or permanent, total or partial closure, when: The infringer has failed to comply, within the deadlines and under the conditions imposed by the authority, with the corrective or urgent measures ordered; In cases of recidivism where the infractions have negative effects on the environment, or There is repeated disobedience, on three or more occasions, in complying with one or more corrective or urgent measures imposed by the authority. Administrative arrest for up to 36 hours. Seizure of the instruments, specimens, products, or by-products directly related to infractions concerning forest resources, wild flora and fauna species, or genetic resources, as provided in this Law, and Suspension or revocation of the corresponding concessions, licenses, permits, or authorizations.

Chapter VI Sanctions Article 305. Violations of environmental regulations, their implementing regulations, and the provisions arising from them by natural or legal persons shall be administratively sanctioned by the competent environmental enforcement authority with one or more of the following sanctions: A fine equivalent to 80 to two million times the UMA; Temporary or permanent, total or partial closure, when the infringing person has failed to comply, within the deadlines and under the conditions that the environmental enforcement authority has applied on duly grounded and reasoned bases, with the corrective or urgent measures ordered; Administrative arrest for up to 36 hours. The environmental enforcement authority shall request that the Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection, or, in the case of the environmental authorities of the states, the local public security authorities, carry out the arrest and have it served at the detention center that the latter determines; Seizure of samples, substances, materials, specimens, parts, derivatives, products, or by-products of wild flora or fauna species, their genetic material, forest resources, as well as goods, vehicles, utensils, and instruments directly related to or used in the commission of the infractions or damage; Suspension or revocation of the corresponding concessions, licenses, permits, or authorizations. In this case, the Ministry shall be notified of the resolution so that the respective suspension or revocation is recorded; Annotation of the administrative resolution in the corresponding Public Registry of Property with respect to the affected site or sites; Cancellation of certifications, recognitions, badges, or seals; Demolition of works or facilities, as well as the removal of those necessary to carry out the remediation of the damage caused to the environment, when environmental compensation has not been made in accordance with the cases established in the Law for its applicability; or Reprimand. In the case of the agreement referred to in Article 302 of this Law, when the environmental authorizations established in the agreement are not obtained, permanent total closure shall be ordered, unless the person demonstrates that the absence of authorizations is not attributable to the infringing person. If, once the period granted by the authority to correct the infraction or infractions, as well as to remediate or compensate for the damage to the environment that has been committed or caused, has expired, it turns out that such infraction or infractions and damage still persist, fines may be applied for each week that passes without obeying the order, provided that the total fines do not exceed the maximum amount allowed under section I of this article, unless the person demonstrates that the persistence is not attributable to the infringing person. In the case of recidivism, the amount of the fine may be up to two times the amount originally applied, provided that the new fine does not exceed the maximum amount allowed, as well as permanent closure.




VI. Registry of Environmental Infringers

The Registry of Environmental Infringers is an instrument administered by the new Federal Attorney’s Office for Environmental Justice in which natural or legal persons who have been sanctioned, by final resolution, for any of the conducts expressly listed in the LGEEPA are recorded. Its central effect is not to invalidate permits already obtained, but rather that a registered person who applies for new permits, licenses, or concessions is required to accompany the application with a guarantee for the full amount of the fine or environmental damage that gave rise to the registration, and is barred from receiving federal public support or benefits for as long as it remains registered.

Previous Law

New Law

No counterpart.

Chapter VIII On the Registry of Environmental Infringers Article 312. The Registry of Environmental Infringers is the instrument for the registration of persons who have been sanctioned, following the right to a hearing and defense and on the basis of environmental regulations, by final resolutions concerning the conducts referred to in Article 313 of this Law. When the final resolution derives from an agreement under Article 302 of this Law, the infringing persons shall not be registered in the Registry. The Registry is under the charge of the Attorney’s Office and must be available for consultation only by federal environmental authorities, which must consult it when handling matters within their remit that relate to infringing persons. … Article 313. Natural or legal persons who have engaged in one or more of the following conducts shall be recorded in the Registry provided for in this chapter, together with the property on which they were carried out: Felling or clearing of forest or preferably forest land without the authorization issued by the competent authority; Works or activities carried out without environmental impact authorization in the areas of water, general communication routes, the electricity industry, mining, forest exploitation, forest land-use changes, real estate developments that affect coastal ecosystems, and works and activities in mangrove wetlands, rivers, lakes, and estuaries; Loss, change, deterioration, impairment, impact, or modification of any of the elements, natural resources, and environmental services they provide in protected natural areas; Destruction of or damage to wildlife or its habitat, based on the register of infringers maintained under the General Wildlife Law; The killing of wildlife specimens without the corresponding authorization; The removal, filling, transplanting, pruning, or any work or activity that affects the integrity of the hydrological flow of the mangrove, of the ecosystem, and of its zone of influence; Negligent burning on agricultural land that causes the spread of fire to neighboring forest land and to temporarily forested land; Starting forest fires; Serious damage to or deterioration of forest ecosystems, as well as harvesting timber and non-timber forest resources in volumes greater than those authorized; Simulating the legal origin of forest raw materials that were not obtained in accordance with environmental regulations; Collecting, storing, transporting, treating, or finally disposing of hazardous waste without the proper authorization; Failing to notify the competent authority of emergencies, accidents, or loss of hazardous waste, in the case of the person who generates or manages it; Transporting through the national territory to another country hazardous waste whose manufacture, use, or consumption is prohibited, and Dumping, abandoning, or finally disposing of hazardous waste at sites not authorized for that purpose. When a person who has been recorded in the Registry of Environmental Infringers applies for permits, licenses, resolutions, concession titles, or authorizations provided for in environmental regulations, that person must submit with the application a guarantee covering an amount equivalent to the total amount of the fine or environmental damage determinations that gave rise to its registration. Submission of this guarantee will be required only once for proceedings concerning the same work or activity that was the subject of the infraction, or one related to the project that gave rise to the sanction.




VII. Current Status

The new LGEEPA is currently under discussion in the Chamber of Deputies. As part of that process, public hearings were held in the Chamber of Deputies from Sept. 28-30, 2026, to analyze and discuss the proposal to enact the new LGEEPA, with the participation of representatives from academia, civil society, communities, productive sectors, and environmental authorities. In this context, the bill may be subject to adjustments as a result of the views and proposals expressed during the hearings, as well as its subsequent discussion and analysis in Congress. Therefore, the content of the bill analyzed in this GT Alert might change before its eventual approval and entry into force.



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* Special thanks to Law Clerk Carolina Monroy Solís ˘ for contributing to this GT Alert.

˘ Not admitted to the practice of law.