Law 2169 of 2021 (Colombia's climate action law)

Law 2169 of 22 December 2021 is the statute through which Colombia turned its climate commitments into legal obligations. Its title says it: it drives low-carbon development in the country by setting minimum targets and measures on carbon neutrality and climate resilience.

For a company, the article that matters most is 16, which creates the mandatory GHG emissions report (Reporte Obligatorio de Emisiones, ROE): a duty to report direct and indirect emissions that will reach public, private and mixed legal entities according to criteria set by the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development.

The national mitigation targets

Article 5 sets the 2030 mitigation targets for greenhouse gases, aligned with the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) submitted to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change:

• Cut greenhouse gas emissions by 51% against the NDC's 2030 reference scenario, equivalent to a national ceiling of 169.44 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2030.
• Reach carbon neutrality by 2050.
• Set carbon budgets for the 2020 to 2030 period.
• Cut black carbon emissions by 40% against 2014, with a ceiling of 9,195 tonnes in 2030, excluding forest fires.
• Bring net natural forest deforestation to zero hectares a year by 2030.

Article 6 adds adaptation targets broken down by sector: housing and territory, health, mining and energy, industry, commerce and tourism, transport, agriculture and environment.

Who it binds

The scope in article 2 falls on national public bodies and on subnational governments, which share responsibility for delivering the targets. The law does not set reduction targets for individual companies, but it explicitly calls for working with the private sector and it creates instruments that do reach companies.

What it means for the private sector

1. The mandatory emissions report (article 16)

Public, private and mixed legal entities will have to report their direct and indirect GHG emissions and the information needed to build inventories, according to criteria the Ministry of Environment will set considering, among other factors, emission levels and company size. The ROE forms part of Colombia's Environmental Information System and the data reported will be publicly accessible.

The law itself makes the duty conditional on the Ministry issuing implementing rules. As of August 2026 those rules are still pending: the Ministry ran a pilot of the ROE platform between November and December 2025 and put a draft resolution out for comment in July 2026. The sensible move is not to wait for the final text and to build the emissions inventory now, using a recognised standard.

2. Accredited verification (article 34)

Emissions, and GHG reductions and removals, must be validated and verified through first-party declarations or accredited third-party conformity declarations. Accrediting GHG validation and verification bodies is the job of the Colombian National Accreditation Body (ONAC). That is the rule that determines who can sign a valid verification in the country.

3. The climate information systems (article 18)

The law rewrote article 26 of Law 1931 of 2018 and organised the National Climate Change Information System (SNICC), which contains the national mitigation monitoring, reporting and verification system. Inside it sit the National GHG Emission Reduction Registry (RENARE), the National GHG Inventory System and the GHG Reduction and Removal Accounting System, all administered by IDEAM. RENARE is where mitigation initiatives are registered, and those registrations later support things like the non-accrual mechanism of Colombia's national carbon tax.

4. Carbon markets (article 22)

The government is to drive the development and institutional framework of carbon markets under principles of transparency, environmental integrity and additionality, and may create fiscal, financial and administrative instruments that reward reductions and removals.

5. Trade, industry and tourism measures (article 11)

The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism must build into its planning instruments actions on industrial energy efficiency, switching to lower-emission fuels, material circularity, sustainable logistics and business capacity for climate management. This is the channel through which the law reaches industry, as programmes rather than penalties.

Frequently asked questions

What is Colombia's emissions reduction target?

A 51% cut in greenhouse gas emissions against the NDC's 2030 reference scenario, with a ceiling of 169.44 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2030, and carbon neutrality by 2050.

Does Law 2169 of 2021 require companies to cut emissions?

It does not set company-level reduction targets. What it does create is a duty to report emissions through the ROE, enforceable once the Ministry of Environment issues implementing rules.

Is the mandatory emissions report in force?

It exists in statute, but as of August 2026 its implementing regulation is still in process. A platform pilot ran in late 2025 and a draft resolution was put out for comment in July 2026.

Who can verify a company's emissions in Colombia?

GHG validation and verification bodies accredited by the Colombian National Accreditation Body, under article 34 of the law.

The cheapest way to get ready for the ROE is to have a GHG inventory built to ISO 14064 or the GHG Protocol, with data traceable back to source. Start with Manglai's carbon footprint solution.