Confronting Climate Change in New Mexico

New Mexico is experiencing a warming trend with an average annual temperature increase of approximately 0.6°F per decade since 1970. This shift is driving more intense droughts, reduced snowpack, and more frequent, destructive wildfires, which threaten the state's multibillion-dollar agricultural sector and forest ecosystems. The document recommends accelerating renewable energy investments, increasing energy efficiency, retiring coal plants, and implementing robust water management and monitoring systems to build climate resilience.

• New Mexico is the sixth-fastest-warming state in the U.S., with average annual temperatures rising by about 0.6°F per decade since 1970, totaling approximately 2.7°F over 45 years. Projections suggest temperatures will rise an additional 3.5 to 8.5°F by 2100.
• Climate change is reducing water availability through diminished snowfall and earlier snowmelts. The Rio Grande's flow was 23 percent lower than the twentieth-century average for the decade ending in 2010, and the Elephant Butte Reservoir reached its lowest level in 40 years in 2013, at only 3 percent of its storage capacity.
• Wildfire risks are increasing due to hotter, drier conditions and a lengthened fire season, which has expanded from five to seven months over the last 40 years. New Mexico has the highest percentage of homes at high or very high risk of wildfire damage in the Western U.S., with over 35,000 homes in these categories.
• The state's forests are facing severe ecological disruption; piñon pines have suffered massive die-offs, with mortality exceeding 90 percent in the middle Rio Grande Basin. The U.S. Forest Service projects piñons could disappear from much of their current range by 2030.
• New Mexico's energy sector is heavily reliant on coal, which provided 67 percent of total in-state electricity generation as of 2013. To reduce emissions, the document suggests expanding the Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) beyond the 20 percent target set for 2020 and retiring inefficient coal plants.
• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan requires New Mexico to reduce power plant carbon emissions by 4.9 million tons by 2030, which is 28 percent below 2012 levels.

APA

Union of Concerned Scientists (2016). Confronting Climate Change in New Mexico. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2016/04/Climate-Change-New-Mexico-fact-sheet.pdf

Chicago

Union of Concerned Scientists. Confronting Climate Change in New Mexico. 2016. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2016/04/Climate-Change-New-Mexico-fact-sheet.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Union of Concerned Scientists |title=Confronting Climate Change in New Mexico |date=April 2016 |url=https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2016/04/Climate-Change-New-Mexico-fact-sheet.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{unionofconcernedscientists2016confronting, author = {{Union of Concerned Scientists}}, title = {{Confronting Climate Change in New Mexico}}, institution = {Union of Concerned Scientists}, year = {2016}, month = apr, url = {https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2016/04/Climate-Change-New-Mexico-fact-sheet.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }