MAY 31, 2022

[INTERVIEW] Environment Minister Maisa Rojas and the approval of Escazú: “We firmly believe that it can become a useful tool to reduce socio-environmental conflict”

The Senate Chamber approved Chile’s incorporation into the Escazú Agreement this Tuesday night, thus completing all legislative procedures. This is great news for citizen participation, especially for defenders of the environment, Minister Rojas highlighted.

The first measure adopted by the Government of President Gabriel Boric, a week after taking office, was to sign and send to Congress the bill to incorporate Chile into the Escazú Agreement.

Today, this milestone of Chile’s first ever ecological government finally became a reality, thanks to its approval in Congress during today’s session. The news was welcomed by Environment Minister Maisa Rojas.

The Minister highlighted the importance of the agreement, which recognizes the State’s duty to protect environmental defenders, as well as public participation in decision-making. This is just one of the many initiatives that are setting the tone for the ministry’s work, such as recycling, ecosystem protection, climate change, drought and carbon neutrality. Minister Rojas talks about these matters below.

- Why is it important that Chile has gained approval to join the Escazú Agreement?

- The Escazú Agreement is the region’s first and only environmental treaty. We believe that it is a powerful tool, because it guarantees the implementation of citizens’ rights to access environmental information, publicly participate in environmental decision-making processes, and access justice in environmental matters.

- What role does it play in defending environmental campaigners?   

- The agreement explicitly recognizes the State’s duty to protect environmental defenders who, unfortunately, often risk their lives for their work. To put an end to this, we need to make progress in protecting them, and Escazú provides guidelines for this.

- Can it be considered a concrete protection tool?

- We can see that the Escazú Agreement will make a significant contribution to the country, meeting a heartfelt demand from communities and social organizations to assert their access rights and thus contributing towards building a robust environmental democracy. “We firmly believe that this can become a useful tool to reduce socio-environmental conflict in our country.” This is not a threat but an opportunity for everyone.

- Two weeks ago, you participated in the official declaration creating the Maullín River Nature Sanctuary. What concrete measures are being taken to care for this and other important ecosystems in our country?

- The first thing to say on this point is that we have been given the task of giving content to Chile’s first ecological government, whose goal is to move towards a new development model that confronts the climate crisis and biodiversity loss. In order to do this, it is a priority to move ahead with creating the Biodiversity and Protected Areas Service (SBAP), an issue dating back to the 2010 environmental reform that has been awaiting Congressional approval for 11 years. This is why we have said that promoting the SBAP will be one of the Environment Ministry’s legislative priorities during this year. Through the SBAP, we want to take charge of resolving institutional dispersion in protected areas, confront the crisis of biodiversity loss throughout the country in a more systemic and comprehensive manner, and improve the funding of the protected areas system.

- Last month, we also celebrated Global Recycling Day. What measures is the Government taking to promote and increase recycling?

- Our main challenge is to promote a circular economy, which includes recycling, but goes much further.   To confront the environmental crises – climate, biodiversity and pollution – we have to change the way we produce and consume, leaving behind linear logic, and replacing it with a circular economy. This is where materials are used in the most efficient way possible, and where production processes do not degrade but rather regenerate our ecosystems. That said, as a country we have to move forward with infrastructure and management models that allow us to increase our recycling rates, which continue to be very low. The implementation of the Extended Producer Responsibility Law (Responsabilidad Extendida del Productor or Ley REP) is key, because it will require regulated companies to organize and finance the management of waste from priority products, through collection and recovery service systems with authorized waste managers.

- I understand that you are also working on an organic waste project…

- Yes, given that 58% of the waste in the “garbage bag” is organic – like fruit or vegetable waste – we are working on a bill for organic waste that would allow us to prevent it from becoming garbage and ending up as landfill. We will give more details about the bill when it is more defined but essentially we want to empower municipalities so that they can collect organic waste separately and we can make progress with composting.

- Do you think that there is a lack of a recycling culture in the country, since we often see recycling collection points full of garbage that should not be there…

- I think it’s important to stress that the responsibility for addressing the climate, biodiversity and pollution crises cannot fall just on the shoulders of the people; governments and the private sector must also play their part. This also applies to recycling, and that is why we are working on the implementation of the Extended Producer Responsibility Law (REP) and an organic waste bill. Among the measures is the gradual rollout of the “recycling truck”, which will visit homes collecting recyclable containers and will cover 80% of homes throughout Chile. 

- One of the great challenges that we have as a country is climate change. How serious is the drought situation here? Is it likely that we will have water rationing?

- This is an urgent task because, as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says, the scientific evidence is unequivocal: climate change is a threat to human wellbeing and the health of the planet. We have a short window to act with energy, because the possibility of safeguarding a habitable future is closing quickly. Implementing the Climate Change Framework Law will be key, because it will be a tool to mainstream the government mandate of becoming the first ecological government in Chile. It will coordinate and organize the actions of the State under the goals of carbon neutrality and climate resilience. This implies that an ecological approach will be integrated into the decisions taken by all of the ministries.

- And what about the water crisis?

- We know that this is a complex problem to tackle, not only due to the effects of climate change, but also because of deficits in water governance, in part, as a result of institutional fragmentation. To take charge of this situation, we have announced the creation of the Fair Water Transition Inter-ministerial Committee, which will listen to science, to technical experts, and we will also pay attention to local knowledge.

- Climate change requires speedy and significant action. How can citizens contribute in this race that already seems to be against time?

- Like all the complex problems we face, there are no single solutions, nor only individual ones. Each and every stakeholder must act in a coordinated and coherent manner in order to transform our society into one that recognizes our interdependence with nature and adapts its production and consumption processes on a scale that ensures our ecosystems can be sustained. For this reason, I again emphasize that the Climate Change Framework Law is soon to be enacted and we will have the responsibility of implementing it, which will be one of the priorities of our administration. We want to be the first ecological government of Chile and implementing this law’s mandate will be key to achieving this. This law will ensure that all the ministries will coordinate efforts in order to transform the way we use transport, feed ourselves, use heating, generate energy, etc. In this context, citizens have a key role to play in demanding that other stakeholders, such as the private and public sectors, implement initiatives and policies of the right quality and funding to change the course of development towards this new paradigm.

- In what way is the government making a commitment to developing a circular economy…?

- As the Environment Ministry, and through a broad participatory process, we have developed the Circular Economy Roadmap. Its vision is that, by 2040, the regenerative circular economy will drive Chile towards a sustainable, fair and participative development that puts people’s wellbeing at the center, while taking care of nature. This process established seven important goals, such as increasing the recycling rate of municipal solid waste to 65% by 2040. For this to happen, 27 initiatives have been proposed, each of which contains different actions, which add up to 118 specific measures.

- Chile proposes to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Are the conditions there today to meet this deadline and could this date be brought forward?

- The Climate Change Framework Law sets the goal for Chile to be carbon neutral and climate resilient by 2050, but it also points out that this goal must be reviewed every five years, which could result in it being brought forward. This decision will depend on a detailed analysis of the potential options for emissions reduction that are available to Chile through actions and policies that can be developed and implemented. Here, it is very important to listen to science and make evidence-based decisions, while continuing to follow the guidelines of the Paris Agreement, which raises the importance of the climate ambition of all countries. If everyone does their part, we can make use of the window of opportunity that we have to keep the planet’s temperature (increase) below 1.5°C. 

- What are the main challenges that you have set yourselves in environmental matters for the coming years?  

- As I have said, we want to be Chile’s first ecological government. We will achieve this by protecting our natural world, preparing to reduce the negative effects of climate change in Chile – which we technically call adaptation – and achieving a Fair Ecological Transition. That means that the social change necessary for protecting nature is carried out in a fair way, so the costs are not paid by the same people who always pay them - the most disadvantaged -  nor that the benefits are reaped by the same people who always receive them. Along these lines, among our priorities as a ministry is to address Chile’s water shortage with a cross-sector perspective. We also have the challenge of implementing the Climate Change Framework Law, and we want to push on with the Biodiversity and Protected Areas Service (SBAP), an issue dating back to the 2010 environmental reform that has been awaiting Congressional approval for 11 years.