El Ciudadano
Original article: El mismo día que se vota en el Senado: No + Zonas de Sacrificio y Asamblea Ecologista llaman a manifestarse contra megarreforma del Gobierno
The organizations No + Zonas de Sacrificio and the Chilean Ecologist Assembly have announced a national protest set for Wednesday, July 15, against the controversial mega-reform proposed by the Kast government.
The demonstrations will take place at the National Congress in Valparaíso, along Calle Victoria, and in front of the former parliament building in Santiago, with the call for participation extending to all regions wishing to join nationally, the organizations stated in a press release.
«The rally is scheduled for 3:00 PM, precisely when the votes on the mega-reform will begin in the Senate chamber,» the convening groups added, warning of the threats this initiative poses to the ecology of Chile and its economic stability.
In an interview with El Ciudadano, Cristóbal Sepúlveda, leader of No + Zonas de Sacrificio, emphasized that the La Moneda initiative «addresses points that put the enforcement of environmental law at risk,» supporting the idea that at least a portion of the project should be sent to the Constitutional Court.
«The most controversial aspect, which has raised concerns among constitutional experts, administrative law professionals, and opposition legislators, as well as alerts from business associations like CPC and Sofofa, is the government’s proposed ‘insurance.’ This compensation assumes a failure of state services whenever a company loses its Environmental Qualification Resolution (RCA) in environmental courts,» the environmentalist explained.
«In short, if a company submits a project as part of the environmental assessment process and this is subsequently annulled in environmental courts applying current law, it will be understood that there is a failure of service by the state, obliging the state to pay out billions of pesos in compensation to companies,» he stated.
For Sepúlveda, this potential scenario is serious as «companies or economic projects could seek environmental evaluations solely to receive the compensation.»
«They will profit regardless; they may submit projects incompatible with our environmental regulations to have them annulled in environmental courts, obliging the state to pay out substantial sums from taxpayer funds. These projects will require constant compensation, which could destabilize the economy of the state of Chile,» he emphasized.
Meanwhile, Alejandra Parra from the Environmental Rights Action Network (RADA) reminded that today, «we are facing a triple planetary crisis: climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss. Chile is not exempt from these crises; in fact, we are feeling their impacts.»
«Each year we see more fires, larger and more intense, and in winter, also stronger storm events, resulting in devastating consequences for certain areas. This is a product of the climate crisis, exacerbated by the biodiversity crisis, which entails the massive loss of species worldwide, and the pollution crisis, which also interacts with and fuels the other two crises,» Parra explained to El Ciudadano.
Consequently, she asserted that «what we need is to strengthen environmental institutions and protection, and the reconstruction law does the opposite.»
«It undermines the public’s ability to participate in environmental assessments or to challenge projects approved contrary to laws and the rights of communities residing in areas designated for extractive projects,» warned the RADA representative.
On the contrary, she continued, Kast’s project «opens the door for companies to seek compensation when a project with a favorable RCA is declared illegal by an environmental court and it also restricts public opportunities to challenge in environmental courts, leaving project approvals or rejections in the hands of the Environmental Assessment Service alone.»
«These are significant threats to our territories. Legislation in Chile should be strengthening environmental protection, applying the principle of non-regression and progression established in the Escazú Agreement, not backtracking on protections as this bill does. That’s why it’s crucial that we take to the streets to defend our environmental rights, our territories, and nature,» concluded Alejandra Parra.
La entrada Nationwide Protests Planned as Senate Votes on Controversial Mega-Reform by Kast Government se publicó primero en El Ciudadano.
🔥 Ver noticia completa en ElCiudadano.cl 🔥
