- Glacier: a law that has been questioned since its creation
The President Javier Milei sent a bill to Congress to reform the Minimum budget law for the protection of glaciers No. 26,639, the President’s Office announced in an official statement this Sunday. The initiative is looking “Order urgently”” consolidate the environmental regulatory framework and “a system of environmental federalism fully compatible with the national constitution.”
The statement published on December 15th directly criticizes the regulations that have been in force for 15 years. “The law, erroneously referred to as the Glacier Law, contains serious errors of interpretation that have created legal uncertainty, paralyzed productive investments and undermined the legitimate exercise of provincial powers over natural resources,” the official text reads.
Glacier: a law that has been questioned since its creation
According to the government, the law has 26,639 structural problems that justify its reform. “This standard proposes clear rules: it protects glaciers that perform an effective water function, strengthens current environmental standards and eliminates the discretion that, under ideological pretexts, hindered the country’s economic development.”says the statement.
The official project aims directly at redefining key concepts in current legislation, in particular the controversial term “ “periglacial environment”which has been the subject of legal disputes since the original law came into force.
The presidential document emphasizes two constitutional pillars in support of reform. First of all, Article 41 of the National Constitution stands out, which establishes the obligation to “protect the environment without hindering human development”. This argument is intended to refute the accusation that the project weakens environmental protection.
The second point focuses on Article 124, which recognizes the provinces as the “original domain of their natural resources.” According to the official text, the reform aims to “strengthen the role of provincial authorities in environmental impact assessment, recognize their technical and scientific capabilities and promote efficient connection with the National Glacier Inventory.”
This approach is at the heart of what the government calls “environmental federalism”: giving provinces the power to determine which areas are considered periglacial environments and therefore fall under legal protection or not.
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