- Mexico 2026
- Chapter 3
Systems and sectors at baseline
Contents
- ·Edition home
- ·Executive summary
- 1Mexico’s risk runs through its borders, its basins and its coasts
- 2Key findings
- 3Systems and sectors at baseline
- 4Risks and capability
- 5Multi-year drought on a gas-reliant grid
- 6Readings from the other desks
- 7The 2027 agenda
- 8Systems in depth
- AMethodology
- BData appendix
- CReferences and record
- ·Complete edition, for print
3.1Where each system stood at evidence close
WAT · Water
Rio Grande water delivered in the 2020–2025 cycle, against 1.75 owed
0.88million acre-feetIn February 2026 Mexico committed to at least 0.35 a year and a plan for the shortfall.
Reported2025IBWC via CRS6
ENE · Energy
Clean share of electricity generation
26%Solar and wind supplied 13%; fossil fuels 74%.
Reported2025Ember5
FOO · Food
Maize imports, latest marketing year
Not boundUSDA · blocker: report not retrievableThe USDA attaché report would fill this tile. It could not be fetched at evidence close.
Not boundn/aUSDA46
HLT · Health
Population with no access to health services (deprivation)
34.2%About 44.5 million people; the figure was 39.1% in 2022.
Reported2024INEGI2
BIO · Biodiversity
Federal protected areas without a management programme
94of 232Protected area totals 98 million hectares in 2026.
Reported2026Expansión12
SYS · Cross-system
Hurricane Otis total damage estimate
12–16US$ billionCategory 5 at landfall at Acapulco; 52 direct deaths and 32 missing in the latest update.
Reported2023NHC7
3.2Domain posture
Each of the twelve coupled domains is read in words, not scored. The coupling column names the dependency that carries risk into other systems.
| Domain | Posture at baseline | Coupling | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| WAT | Water stress on 64% of the area; 114 overexploited aquifers; shared rivers with the United States. | WAT → FOO · WAT ↔ ENE | Reported EQL 4 |
| ENE | Dry gas supplies 64.2% of electricity; 5,010 PJ of refined products imported; clean share 26%. | ENE ← TRD · ENE → all | Reported EQL 5 |
| FOO | Constitutional ban on planting modified maize; livestock trade disrupted by screwworm; import volumes not bound. | FOO ← TRD, WAT | Reported EQL 3 |
| HLT | Poverty at 29.6%; 34.2% without access to health services; heat season deaths recorded by state. | HLT ← CLI, SEI | Reported EQL 4 |
| BIO | 232 federal protected areas, 98 million hectares protected; 94 areas without a management programme. | BIO ↔ WAT, FOO | Reported EQL 3 |
| CLI | Drought peak at 76% in 2024; Otis in 2023; warming of 3.2 °C a century stated by the government. | forcing on all systems | Reported EQL 4 |
| INF | Valley of Mexico subsidence up to 50 cm a year; 2017 earthquake damage in several states. | INF → all | Inferred EQL 3 |
| FIN | US$420 million of parametric cover; four sectors emitting 77% hold 32% of bank credit. | FIN ← SEI, CLI | Reported EQL 4 |
| DAT | Digital dependencies of lifelines not mapped at public-safe resolution. | DAT → ENE, FIN | Expert input EQL 2 |
| AIC | Data-centre and manufacturing load on power and water not bound. | AIC → ENE, WAT | Expert input EQL 2 |
| MIN | Critical minerals and fuels: trade exposure not bound. | MIN ← TRD | Expert input EQL 2 |
| TRD | Trade with one neighbour carries fuel, grain, cattle and water questions. | TRD → all | Inferred EQL 3 |
3.3Sector screens
All sixteen sectors are screened on the same grammar, so that later editions can say what changed. The evidence column describes coverage of the baseline evidence, not the performance of the sector.
| Code | Sector | Baseline evidence | Exposure to watch | Evidence coverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GS-00 | Cross-system | compound drought, heat and gas stress | multi-year drought on a gas-reliant grid | PARTIAL |
| GS-01 | Water | stress on 64% of the area3 | drought; aquifer overdraft; treaty deliveries | PARTIAL |
| GS-02 | Energy | dry gas 64.2% of power4 | import disruption; summer peaks | GOOD |
| GS-03 | Food | maize rules and cattle trade2223 | trade shocks; animal disease | THIN |
| GS-04 | Health | deprivation at 34.2%2 | heat; care access | PARTIAL |
| GS-05 | Finance | sovereign parametric cover8 | catastrophe fiscal cost | PARTIAL |
| GS-06 | Development | poverty at 29.6%2 | service gaps | GOOD |
| GS-07 | Climate | drought peak 202414 | heat, drought, cyclones | GOOD |
| GS-08 | Disaster | earthquake and cyclone exposure79 | compound events | PARTIAL |
| GS-09 | Infrastructure | subsidence11 | water and transport networks | PARTIAL |
| GS-10 | Cities | Valley of Mexico basin | water supply, subsidence, quakes | PARTIAL |
| GS-11 | Biodiversity | 98 million hectares protected12 | funding and management gaps | PARTIAL |
| GS-12 | Earth observation | SMN monitor in routine use15 | continuity | GOOD |
| GS-13 | Cyber and digital | dependencies not yet mapped | systemic outages | THIN |
| GS-14 | Policy | NDC 3.0 and national plan332 | coordination across levels | PARTIAL |
| GS-15 | Science | peer-reviewed subsidence work11 | translation to regions | PARTIAL |
Notes
Numbers are the edition’s reference numbers, so a note reads the same in every chapter. The full list, with every source and its licence, is in Annex C. Annex C, references
- 6E. H. Humphreys, N. T. Carter and C. V. Stern, 1944 U.S.-Mexico Water Treaty: Issues in the 119th Congress. CRS Insight IF12976, Congressional Research Service, Washington DC, 6 March 2026. Observation year: 2025 (cycle end), 2026 (commitments).back
- 5Ember (ed.), Mexico: electricity country profile, 2025 data. Ember, London, page updated 20 May 2026. Observation year: 2025.back
- 46United States Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Service (ed.), Mexico: Grain and Feed Annual. GAIN report, Washington DC, latest edition (not retrievable at evidence close). Observation year: not bound.back
- 2Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (ed.), Pobreza multidimensional 2024. Comunicado de prensa 118/25. INEGI, Aguascalientes, 13 August 2025. Observation year: 2024.back
- 12Expansión Política (ed.), “Presupuesto 2027 pone en riesgo las áreas naturales protegidas,” reporting an analysis by NOSSA of official data. Expansión, Mexico City, 22 September 2026. Observation year: 2026.back
- 7National Hurricane Center (ed.), Tropical Cyclone Report: Hurricane Otis (EP182023), 22–25 October 2023. NOAA, Miami, 2024. Observation year: 2023.back
- 3Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (ed.), Actualización de la Contribución Determinada a nivel Nacional 3.0 de México. Submission to the UNFCCC, Mexico City, November 2025. Observation year: 2025 (preliminary 2024 inventory shares).back
- 4Banco de México (ed.), “La matriz energética de México,” Recuadro 5, Reporte de Estabilidad Financiera, June 2026, pp. 127–131, using SENER, Balance Nacional de Energía 2024. Banxico, Mexico City, 10 June 2026. Observation year: 2024.back
- 22Seed World (ed.), “Mexico approves constitutional ban on planting genetically modified corn.” Seed World, 24 March 2025. Observation year: 2025.back
- 23El Imparcial (ed.), “Cierra EEUU nuevamente frontera con México por gusano en el ganado.” El Imparcial, 11 May 2025. Observation year: 2025.back
- 8World Bank (ed.), “World Bank Issues $420 Million in Catastrophe Bonds for Renewed Disaster Risk Protection for Mexico.” Press release, Washington DC, 17 April 2024. Observation year: 2024.back
- 14UnoTV and AFP (eds.), “Sequía retrocede a 7.4% tras máximo de 2024, el menor nivel en 6 años,” reporting the SMN drought monitor. UnoTV, Mexico City, 30 January 2026. Observation year: 2024 (peak), 2026 (January).back
- 9Servicio Sismológico Nacional (ed.), Reporte especial: Sismo del día 19 de septiembre de 2017, Puebla-Morelos (M 7.1). UNAM, Mexico City, 2017. Observation year: 2017.back
- 11E. Chaussard, E. Havazli, H. Fattahi, E. Cabral-Cano and D. Solano-Rojas, “Over a century of sinking in Mexico City: no hope for significant elevation and storage capacity recovery,” Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, vol. 126, no. 4, e2020JB020648, 2021. Observation year: 2021 (record from 1900).back
- 15Servicio Meteorológico Nacional and Comisión Nacional del Agua (eds.), Monitor de Sequía en México. Conagua, Mexico City, issued every two weeks since February 2014; page consulted 2026. Observation year: 2026.back
- 32Gobierno de México (ed.), Plan Nacional de Desarrollo 2025–2030. Mexico City, 2025. Observation year: 2025.back
