Glacier Defenders Say Senate Board Is Chipping Away At Protection Bill
Glacier Defenders Say Senate Board Is Chipping Away At Protection Bill
by Fernanda Gandara
25 September, 2020
Reading Time: 2 minutes
SANTIAGO — A coalition of organizations from Chile’s northern and central regions publicly challenged the Senate board reviewing a bill on glacier protection. The organization also specifically rejected a suggested change by the Piñera administration that would exclude many glaciers from protection. According to the organization, the board is simply a rubber stamp for the administration and lacks transparency.
Glaciers are the planet’s primary freshwater reserves. Chile has over 80 percent of the glaciers in South America. According to the General Directorate of Water, there are over 24,000 in the country. In Chile, glaciers are also threatened, including by rising temperatures and mining projects. These are among the reasons a pending bill seeks to protect the country’s vast ice fields.
The Mining and Energy Commission of the Senate is overseeing the bill, but it has been stuck in neutral since January. To speed things up, Senator Guido Girardi proposed to work on an agreement between the senators’ advisors and President Sebastián Piñera’s administration. This led to the creation of a discussion board that is now accused of lacking transparency and being complicit with the administration.
A coalition of organizations from Chile’s northern and central regions that seek to protect the glaciers, La Coordinación de Territorios en Defensa de los Glaciares (The Coordination of Territories for the Defense of Glaciers, CTDG), issued a statement to “alert citizens and communities of the agreements that may be executed in this instance, since [the board] is not a public body that allows citizen control.”
More:
https://chiletoday.cl/site/glacier-defenders-say-senate-board-is-chipping-away-at-protection-bill/
