In Argentina there are two important laws that support environmental law at the national level: the Forestry Act and the Glacier Protection Act.
Law 26,331, the first of these, protects forests and classifies them according to their level of conservation, sets limits for deforestation and takes into account the interests of indigenous communities. While the second, the law 26,639Goals Conservation of strategic freshwater reserves The They directly serve more than seven million people, mostly residents of the Cuyo region of Argentina.
Glacier Law: The government is preparing new reforms
The libertarian government of Javier Milei has scrutinized this final regulation due to the productive costs involved: Mining must be strictly prohibited in the entire area around the glaciers.
An ecological and ecological victory achieved in 2010 the sanctioning of a norm that retarded the productive and extractive development of vitally necessary minerals in the context of the fourth industrial revolution. Perhaps the most powerful thing humanity has ever known, considering the impact of new technological tools, of which artificial intelligence appears to be the most important, but by no means the only one in existence.
The need to increase mining activity to extract minerals and rare earths, which are the raw material for new technologies, strengthened the reform spirit of the Milei government, which dares to lead the ecological debate from February 10 next year, when the Senate begins to discuss sweeping changes to the Glacier Law.
A debate about the future that has already gone beyond the borders of our country and has come to the forefront of public opinion in European newspapers, references of center-left thought and environmental protection, such as El País in Madrid or El Salto, and which is being followed by renowned news agencies of the Old Continent.
“Fasten your seatbelts”: Javier Milei’s message
“Buckle up, because there are many more reforms to come” The President promised this in the most recent Christmas message to the population and also assured: “With this Congress we have no doubt that we will go to the bone until we make Argentina the freest country in the world and become great again.”
Music to the ears of the members of the Argentine Chamber of Mining Entrepreneurs (CAEM), who have been digesting a serious defeat for fifteen years when a very strict glacier protection law was passed that prevented and even demonized mining activity in the debates in Congress.
Alfredo Vitallerdes CAEMpublicly claimed that the industry’s goal is to protect glaciers as long as they serve strategic functions as water reserves, stating that the current law has imperfections that create legal uncertainty.
He agreed with this assessment Manuel Benitezdes Argentine Chamber of Mining Suppliers (CAPMIN)which has 350 member companies and around 13 provincial chambers, and which in the National Senate has emphasized to the authorities the need for responsible mining to accompany economic growth and the energy transition.
“The suppliers are three rings: the first is the municipality, the city where the project is located; the second is the province, which has the resources and has autonomy in development, and the third is the country, because there is not only mining in the Andes, but mining throughout the country.”Bentiez explained.
The new program, designed in the offices of Casa Rosada, places particular emphasis on the provincial authorities who must assess existing water resources when approving or rejecting mining projects in their states. Currently, more than 250 mining projects have been presented and only 10% could be affected by the original restrictions of the Glacier Law.
But in an Argentina concerned with monetary resources and the promotion of production, Milei is determined to lift any restrictions that the state may impose on the activity in question. For this reason, he loudly celebrated the recent decision of the government of Mendoza Province, which reached a legislative consensus and a Reform that makes controls on mining activities more flexible, with a focus on copper extraction.
The times of change are clear and flawless. Major Argentine copper extraction projects were halted for 15 years. The same period of time since the Glacier Act was passed. In Mendoza, citizens begin to divide and there are protests against the reform. Week after week, neighborhood and environmental organizations demonstrate to express their opposition to mega-mining due to the pollution risks it poses.
In a desert province that uses every drop of water as if it were the last to develop a thriving wine industry, the concern is with the liquid element and its solid reserves. “Water cannot be negotiated” and “Without water there is no future” are often written on the protesters’ banners.
The heart of the legal reform, on which the National Senate’s Mining, Energy and Fuels and Environment and Sustainable Development Commissions have given a positive opinion, redefines protection. With the new text, glaciers and periglacial environments They are only protected if they fulfill an “effective water function”. Delegate evaluations to the federal states.
The impact on the international media is justified by the impact that the changes to the standard will have and by the business opportunities that will arise for multinational mining companies and also for suppliers of the sector of European origin, which will closely follow the course of the legislative debate and the depth of the changes achieved by the Milei government.
Changes envisaged in the negotiating areas are called Lithium Roundtables, consisting of officials from Jujuy, Salta and Catamarca, and Copper Roundtables, which also include representatives from the provinces of San Juan and Mendoza.
In Argentina, in addition to traditional NGOs such as Greenpeace or Fundación Vida Silvestre, there are several environmental lawyers who will try to influence the debate with their conservation positions.
In the Senate the word of Andres NapoliDirector of the Environment and Natural Resources Foundation (FARN), who warned that the project introduces changes “through interpretation” that, in his opinion, alter the original spirit of the law and the current constitutional system.
In the international media, the lawyer Lucas Micheloud was consulted, who agrees with the diagnosis of the NGOs who claim that without water there is no future. A statement explained that “in the current context of droughts and glacier retreat as a result of climate change “Any change to the Glacier Act should be gradual and expand the level of protection, while always avoiding regression.”
The table is set for a new divide in public opinion that will deepen from February 10, when national senators begin discussing changes to the glacier law in the parliamentary chamber. What all parties to the conflict are certain of is the inalienable reformist vocation that President Milei has to live up to his recent statements and warnings.
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