LAST UPDATED: DEC/2025. Colombia officially submitted its third Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC 3.0) in September 2025, approved by the Comisión Intersectorial de Cambio Climático. Entitled "NDC 3.0: Transformaciones para la Vida," the text reaffirms climate action as a state policy and an ethical commitment to present and future generations. In December of the same year, the country sent the final version to the UNFCCC, with adjustments relative to the previous one.

The NDC incorporates cross-cutting approaches on gender, Indigenous peoples, Black communities and the peasantry, as well as adopting an intergenerational perspective, with attention to children and youth. The document also presents an approach grounded in climate justice, just transition, territorial equity, the guarantee of human rights, and building peace with nature.

For the first time, the document addresses the national loss-and-damage situation as a present-day reality that limits sustainable development, increases social and economic costs, and deepens social and territorial inequalities. In addition, the document highlights adaptation and climate finance agendas.

Colombia's NDC 3.0 also reinforces the need for inclusive climate action, connecting environmental policy with comprehensive rural reform, protection of the Amazon, environmental democracy with effective implementation of the Escazú Agreement, and the strengthening of popular and community economies.

On mitigation, NDC 3.0 sets a ceiling for Colombia's 2035 emissions, fixed between 155 and 161 MtCO₂e. This is an economy-wide target, covering the energy, industrial processes, waste, and agriculture, forestry and other land use sectors.

In this mitigation calculation, Colombia does not include the natural carbon absorption of its national natural forests, on the grounds that this capture occurs spontaneously, without additional human intervention. The NDC thus considers only emissions reductions and removals resulting from mitigation actions across the different sectors of the economy, including land use and forestry, and does not count passive natural absorption.

In addition, Colombia commits to reducing black carbon emissions—the soot generated by burning coal and wood, for example. The target is to mitigate between 6,100 and 8,800 tonnes of this pollutant, focusing on actions in the transport, construction and manufacturing industry, and agriculture sectors, particularly in controlling agricultural waste burning.

Another national priority is deforestation: the country aims to reduce the national rate to between 37,500 and 49,999 hectares per year by 2035. In the NDC, Colombia highlights that controlling deforestation links climate action with biodiversity conservation and the well-being of the communities that inhabit and care for the forests. The document also acknowledges the role of Indigenous territories in promoting sustainable forest management and the importance of consolidating their territorial rights.

In NDC 3.0, Colombia also reaffirms its goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050, stressing that meeting it depends on adequate and predictable international financing, technology transfer and global cooperation, in line with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR).

Colombia's NDC has been praised for adopting a strong discourse on adaptation, as well as for including the dimensions of loss and damage and just transition (WRI, 2025). The emphasis on the "Peace with Nature" proposal is also recognized as an important symbolic and political advance, linking the climate agenda to the post-conflict context, environmental recovery and the government's project of building a "World Power of Life."

Even so, NDC 3.0 faces criticism regarding its level of ambition and effective implementation capacity. According to the Climate Action Tracker (CAT, 2025) analysis, Colombia's target is not aligned with a pathway compatible with the 1.5°C limit and is rated "Insufficient" for the Paris Agreement. This means that if all countries adopted targets with the same level of ambition, global warming could exceed 2°C over the course of the century.

The CAT analyzes Colombia's targets for 2030, 2035 and 2050. Although the 2035 target is slightly more ambitious than the 2030 target in absolute terms—moving from an emissions ceiling of 169 MtCO₂e in 2030 to up to 155 MtCO₂e in 2035—it is still insufficient to put the country on a pathway compatible with climate neutrality by 2050 and with the 1.5°C goal by the end of the century.

Finally, the NDC itself acknowledges that Colombia's main challenge lies not only in setting targets but in their implementation. The CAT assessment confirms this concern, indicating that current and planned policies are not sufficient to achieve the 2035 target, which requires scaling up the implementation of climate action, both through domestic measures and international support.

Colombia has a greenhouse gas emissions neutrality target for 2050, established in its NDC and incorporated into national law through the Climate Action Law (Law 2169/2021). In the same year, the country submitted its Long-Term Carbon Neutrality Strategy (E2050) to the UNFCCC.

The E2050 seeks to align climate action with inclusive socioeconomic development, emphasizing that mitigation and adaptation must advance together with prosperity, territorial peace, and social justice. According to the document, to do what science indicates is necessary to limit warming to 1.5°C–2°C, Colombia will need to reduce around 90% of its GHG emissions by 2050 compared with 2015 levels, offsetting the remaining 10% through domestic removals in order to achieve net-zero emissions. To do so, the country will need to reach peak emissions before 2030 and begin a sustained downward trajectory (Colombia, 2024).

The core of the strategy is diversification of the energy mix, with rapid expansion of renewable sources such as solar, wind, and biomass, gradual reduction of dependence on coal, and, in the medium term, a decline in the importance of oil in the economy. The preservation of natural ecosystems is also treated as a key element, both for carbon capture and for climate resilience, with priority given to curbing deforestation in the Colombian Amazon and restoring degraded areas.

The transition is presented as a process that must be fair and inclusive, with policies for reskilling and the creation of green jobs for affected communities. The strategy also emphasizes the importance of international climate finance, technological cooperation, and mobilizing private investment to make the necessary structural transformation possible. In this context, Colombia seeks to position itself as a regional climate leader, combining environmental ambition with a reduction in internal inequalities.

The Climate Action Tracker (CAT, 2025) classifies the E2050 as “acceptable.” The strategy has legal status and presents transparency in its drafting process. The document includes different development scenarios based on variations in economic growth, population dynamics, transport electrification costs, renewable energy expansion, and carbon capture technologies, as well as the impacts of climate change on the country’s hydrological systems. It also presents a set of actions and technological choices to promote decarbonization of the economy. However, the E2050 still allows for the continued presence of fossil fuels in Colombia’s energy mix throughout the transition.