Kendry

@kendry · 27 Apr 2022

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Environmental Treaty in Latin America

#yoorslocalnews President Gabriel Boric inaugurated this Wednesday the first Conference of the Parties (COP1) of the Escazu environmental agreement with Chile as host, but not a member. Although the South American country was one of the promoters of the pioneering treaty that seeks to guarantee access to information, citizen participation and justice in environmental matters, the government of Sebastián Piñera decided in 2020 not to join. “I hope that we will soon become a State party,” said Boric, who in his first week in La Moneda sent a bill with great urgency to Congress for Chile to join the binding pact.

“It is essential for our government to resume the regional leadership that Chile had in the past in this area and to focus on promoting the consolidation of this agreement throughout Latin America,” said the president at the first activity of the three-day meeting held at the headquarters of the Economic Commission for America Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), in Santiago. Of the 33 countries in the region, 24 countries signed the agreement in 2018, but since then only 12 have ratified it through their Congresses, including Mexico, Bolivia and Uruguay. Countries such as Brazil, Peru or Colombia have not been subscribed.



Costa Rica, which together with Chile were the main promoters of the agreement, has not ratified. Its vice-president, Epsy Campbell, participated this morning through a videoconference: “Our societies have become polarized in absurd debates about the dilemma about environmental conservation and the challenge of sustainable development,” he said. “I am very sorry that in the middle of the 21st century there are those who pose this false dichotomy, with false premises, that do not allow us to advance in public policies and legislation that understand the immense challenge that lies ahead,” he added.

In 2012, during Piñera's first term, the idea of the treaty emerged and the negotiating machinery was put in place to carry it out. Six years later, in the second government of the businessman, he announced that Chile would not sign it. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Environment argued that the agreement introduced a series of undefined principles that would condition environmental legislation and that it introduced “ambiguous, broad and undefined” obligations for the State, among other reasons that surprised local and international authorities.

To make a difference with the position of the previous Administration, Boric arrived this morning accompanied by Foreign Minister Antonia Urrejola and Minister of the Environment, Maisa Rojas. “This treaty will make it possible to reduce the socio-environmental conflict that exists in the country by opening an early and meaningful dialogue. This will unravel the false paradigm that economic development runs counter to environmental protection. At this point, the loss of biodiversity is irreversible and the well-being of all Chileans depends on a healthy nature,” said Rojas, who hopes that Congress will approve this year's bill for Chile to join the agreement.

The treaty seeks to guarantee the right to information, participation and justice on environmental issues. On the subject of participation, for example, it is stipulated that representatives of civil society participate in the negotiations. “If these three rights are guaranteed, it can improve decision-making, and guarantee us other human rights, such as the human right to live in a healthy environment,” added the Minister of Environment.

Image taken from pixabay