\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t Argentina\u2019s Chamber of Deputies has opened its first public hearing on the controversial reform of the Glacier Law, approved by the upper house last month. The reform aims to loosen restrictions that currently ban mining in glaciers and their surrounding areas.<\/p>\n
With more than 100,000 registered participants, the Deputy Chamber designed a hybrid model: the hearing would be in person on Wednesday and feature 200 speakers. On Thursday, 200 will participate in a public meeting held remotely. Everybody else will have to do so through a platform by submitting a written statement or a video.<\/p>\n
A group of deputies from opposition parties demanded that the head of the lower house, ruling party La Libertad Avanza\u2019s Mart\u00edn Menem, revise the scheme.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey arbitrarily restricted participation: less than 1% of the more than 100,000 registered participants will be able to take part, and the selection process has not been made transparent,\u201d posted Sabrina Selva, one of the deputies who signed the petition, on X.<\/p>\n
Several environmentalist groups filed an injunction against the participation scheme, which a federal court rejected.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe scale of public participation reflects the public\u2019s interest in the debate over a key regulation for glacier protection and access to water. This process must live up to that interest and ensure genuine opportunities for participation,\u201d the organizations stated.<\/p>\n
Andr\u00e9s N\u00e1poli, head of Environment and Natural Resources Federation (FARN, by its Spanish acronym), noted during the hearing that the proposed reform goes against the Escaz\u00fa Agreement, an international treaty signed in 2018 by 24 Latin American and Caribbean countries concerning the rights of access to information about the environment and public participation in environmental decision-making.<\/p>\n
N\u00e1poli said that the original Glacier Law, approved in 2010, originated from two concerns: the climate change\u2019s impact on glaciers and \u201cthe disasters the mega-mining was causing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe current Glacier Law protects glaciers and the periglacial zone as a single entity, and mining or hydrocarbon extraction is not permitted in those areas,\u201d N\u00e1poli told the Herald.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The reform grants the power to ignore a 17,000 glacier inventory done in 2010.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat they are doing is changing that and handing over the authority to set the minimum standard to the provinces,\u201d he added. He said that the change could lead to \u201cregulatory feudalism or environmental dumping \u2014 provinces competing to see who has the lowest protection standards and thus collects more taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to N\u00e1poli, the proposed reform is unconstitutional, regressive, and misleading.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe law is being amended to greenlight four or five major projects: Vicu\u00f1a and Pach\u00f3n in San Juan, MARA in Catamarca, and, as Senator Patricia Bullrich mentioned, possibly another one in Salta called Taca Taca,\u201d he said, adding that the interest comes from provinces mining copper and lithium.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not saying \u2018no\u2019 to mining; we\u2019re saying no to mining on glaciers,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s 0.3% of the national territory. In the rest of the country, there are no restrictions on mining, other than using proper practices, obtaining the necessary permits, and adhering to regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Adolfo P\u00e9rez Esquivel also participated in the hearings, saying that the proposed reform ignores the needs of indigenous peoples.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been in countries where water is more valuable than gold,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cCompanies are trying to get in, with the pressure of the United States\u2019 government, to impose this law,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is not development, that is exploitation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Argentina\u2019s Chamber of Deputies has opened its first public hearing on the controversial reform of the Glacier Law, approved by the upper house last month. The reform aims to loosen restrictions that currently ban mining in glaciers and their surrounding areas. With more than 100,000 registered participants, the Deputy Chamber designed a hybrid model: the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":46006,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2541,3272,59],"tags":[2819,12330,86],"class_list":["post-46005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","category-glacier-law","category-politics","tag-environment","tag-glacier-law","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}