The guidelines and priorities of the new SEMARNAT

• On October 4, 2024, the new head of SEMARNAT presented the main guidelines that will guide her management, focused on strengthening sustainable development, environmental justice and the protection of biodiversity.
• He stressed that he will promote innovative projects and demand that environmental value be present in all stages of the projects, seeking to balance development and infrastructure with environmental conservation.

On October 4, 2024, the new head of the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (“SEMARNAT”), Biologist Alicia Bárcenas Ibarra, gave a welcome message to the new officials who will fill some of the most important positions in the agency, as well as the heads of the Federal Attorney's Office for Environmental Protection (“PROFEPA”), the National Water Commission (“CONAGUA”), the National Agency for Industrial Safety and Environmental Protection of the Hydrocarbon Sector, among others; so we can say that the most important decision-makers of the national environmental policy were present at said meeting.

In this message, the head of SEMARNAT outlined the most important axes of her administration, which will surely guide the actions of all environmental authorities, so it will be important to consider them when generating projects in Mexico, or reinforcing those projects that already operate in our country.

That said, at Santamarina and Steta we make sure that you keep them in mind and we decided to list them, accompanied by some general strategies for their compliance. In addition, we will periodically publish a guide to specifically address each of them, along with advice for their compliance:

1. Strengthening sustainable development: During the environmental impact assessment, more concrete and effective strategies for compensating environmental impacts should be considered in order to obtain an environmental impact authorization.
2. The appropriation of natural resources should not generate inequalities: Social impact assessment and/or indigenous consultation are excellent tools for understanding how a project can impact a community and transform adverse impacts into genuine opportunities for individual and collective development.
3. Environmental justice: which means that PROFEPA will have to reinforce its inspection and sanctioning work, in addition to closing down polluting projects. For this reason, it is important to carry out environmental audits. preventive, implement improvement plans and ensure that the terms and conditions of permits, authorizations and licenses are in compliance, otherwise, it is better to voluntary and preventive regularization, which is a regularization resulting from an inspection.   
4. Prevent and repair environmental damage: Environmental impact assessments may be more stringent, but the restoration of rivers, soils and/or forests may also be an attractive compensation measure that allows projects to be approved.
5. Protect biodiversity: In addition to environmental impact measures, this administration may more effectively use instruments to protect traditional natural resource practices.[1], may be more restrictive regarding activities with genetically modified organisms.
6. Sanitation of water and related ecosystems: Like PROFEPA, this means that CONAGUA will implement more aggressive inspection and sanction actions, which may lead to the closure of activities that generate polluting water. Therefore, we recommend ensuring proper compliance with the discharge permit, especially with regard to possible particular discharge conditions that may exist in the permits. In addition, investments should be made to improve the wastewater treatment plant.
7. Internalize past, present and future impacts: This point could be controversial, since SEMARNAT could try to make current companies responsible for past pollution. In principle, this regulation should not scare anyone, since it is a provision that has been in law for several decades. However, it is more important to know the history of the place where a project is going to be developed in order to know if there is an environmental liability (historical pollution), so the preparation of baseline studies or "phase I” should be common practice before starting a project.
8. Projects require incorporating environmental value from their designEnvironmental compliance must be present in all stages of a project, from design, operation and abandonment.
9. Promoting innovative projects: Those projects that manage to demonstrate some innovative environmental protection measure will be able to more easily pass the corresponding evaluations and obtain their authorizations.
10. Stewardship of natural resources: This concept must be understood in relation to the natural resources over which SEMARNAT and the environmental authorities have jurisdiction, which are listed below, accompanied by some tips:

• Water: In this case, CONAGUA has been prioritizing those concessions related to projects that can demonstrate that they will not cause overexploitation of aquifers, so we believe that this policy will continue.

• Federal Maritime Land Zone: In this case, SEMARNAT could give priority to those concessions that ensure public use of the beach.

• forests:SEMARNAT has been imposing conservation or reforestation measures beyond what the law states, for example, conserving vegetation on 30% of the land, so these measures may continue. 

These guidelines should not be understood as a prohibition on the development of infrastructure in the country, but rather as a measure to protect ecosystems. Compliance with these guidelines will help ensure that projects are more likely to be authorized and developed in favorable social environments, reducing the risk of closure.

[1] This is the case of the Nagoya Protocol, which regulates the distribution of benefits in cases where techniques or products used in traditional ways by communities are used.