On the eve of the Senate's consideration of a government initiative aimed at facilitating mining and hydrocarbon exploitation in glacier zones, national deputy from Unión por la Patria, Eduardo Valdés, presented a counter-proposal bill to reinforce the current Minimum Protection Regime for Glaciers and Periglacial Environment. The Casa Rosada's initiative, strongly backed by mineral-exporting provincial governors and energetically rejected by environmental organizations, seeks to decentralize control and regulation of mining and hydrocarbon exploitation in periglacial areas, with the goal of removing barriers to investment in the sector. The ruling coalition will seek to approve the project that eliminates exploitation bans in periglacial zones in the upper house chamber next Friday. In essence, with this reform, the government proposes to recognize the original domain of natural resources to the provinces, a right enshrined in article 124 of the Constitution after the 1994 reform. The reform transfers to the provinces the power to define which zones to protect and which not, minimizing interference from the central administration. Law 26.639, in force since its enactment at the end of 2010, in addition to prohibiting exploration and economic exploitation in glaciers, limits the installation of projects in periglacial areas, which are very cold high-mountain ecosystems, freshwater reservoirs usually close to glaciers, characterized by having frozen or water-saturated soils and play an important role in the regulation of hydrological and geomorphological balance. Valdés's project recovers this protective imprint and strengthens it, with highly restrictive criteria for the development of economic activities in periglacial areas, maintaining the absolute prohibition in glaciers. The objective of this minimum standards law is to consolidate a minimum environmental protection standard throughout the country and preserve glaciers as strategic freshwater reserves, essential for human consumption, agricultural production, recharge of river basins, energy generation, biodiversity, scientific research, and tourism development. In the peronist deputy's initiative, “exploration, prospecting, and mining activities, both metallic and non-metallic, including those carried out by underground or open-pit methods”; as well as “conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon exploitation”; and “the construction of infrastructure works that alter the hydrological or geomorphological balance of glaciers and periglacial environment” are expressly prohibited. Meanwhile, activities projected in glaciers and the periglacial environment that are not prohibited “must be mandatorily submitted to a prior, public, and binding Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA)”. Only tasks for rescue in air or land emergencies, scientific activities that do not leave waste in the environment, and sports activities, “including mountaineering, climbing, and non-motorized sports that do not disturb the environment”, will be exempt from this obligation. In the article referring to sanctions, the penalties for violations of the law are listed, which range from a mere reprimand, through economic fines of 100 to 100,000 minimum wages, suspension of 30 days to a year, up to the definitive cessation of the activity.
“Access to water is a right and a condition for development.” In a federal state, the protection of these ecosystems requires coordination between the Nation and the provinces, in line with the doctrine established by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, which in 2019 emphasized the strategic nature of the water resource and the need to consider environmental preservation systemically when the access to water of large populations is at stake, pointed out Valdés in the project's rationale. The initiative is also imbued with the international commitments assumed by the country within the framework of the Paris Agreement and retakes warnings from environmental organizations that have been pointing out the risks of flexibilizing the current regulation in the midst of the climate change crisis, such as Greenpeace, FARN, Aves Argentinas, the Argentine Association of Environmental Lawyers and Youth for the Climate. Valdés indicated that the initiative places special emphasis on the defense of mountain communities and localities located downstream of glacier systems, which could see both the availability and quality of the water resource affected by the expansion of extractive activities without adequate controls.
“Access to water and the protection of glaciers are not just an environmental issue, but a matter of sovereignty, development, and social justice,” concluded the legislator from Unión por la Patria, who seeks to consolidate a robust regulatory framework against any attempt to backtrack on the protection of one of the country's most strategic assets. “Any rollback in glacier protection jeopardizes the future of our communities,” argued Valdés. According to the Argentine News Agency, Argentina has about 17,000 inventoried glaciers in 12 provinces, which feed 36 river basins and guarantee water for millions of people.
