The recently passed Omnibus Law, introduced by Argentina’s new president, would compromise glaciers and periglacial zones with strong repercussions for biodiversity, a scientist specialising in the subject told local media.
The law, introduced in late December, is the hallmark of right-wing President Javier Milei.
The head of state previously attracted criticism for referring to climate change as a “socialist lie”, then doubled down on the previous administration’s efforts to establish carbon markets by proposing a national cap-and-trade scheme in the same law.
Passed Friday by the legislature in a general form, the regulation will now be subject to an article-by-article discussion.
One of these is set to modify environmental protections from the National Glacier Law of 2010, narrowing the definition of glaciers and precluding protections for those not currently in the national inventory, prompting fierce criticism by environmental organisations and scientists.
“A large expanse of mountains will cease to be protected,” Lucas Ruiz, a researcher at the Argentine Institute for the Study of Snow, Glaciology, and Environmental Sciences (IANIGLA), told Argentine news network TN.
“This means that it will be possible to undertake activities that today are prohibited, in areas where snow filters through and replenishes river basins.”
The Glacier Law protects not only glaciers, but also periglacial zones, Ruiz added, such as mountainous parts of the San Juan, Mendoza, La Rioja, and Catamarca provinces.
Proposed modifications “are very oriented toward certain projects currently in conflict with the Glacier Law”, he said, while noting that mining is not fully prohibited under the law in its current form.
Ruiz also cautioned that improper glacier management could affect water reserves in high-altitude wetlands, which are fed by the melting of glaciers and subterranean ice in periglacial environments.
“If something happens upstream and a flood valley dries up or is damaged, what little life there is in its vicinity will disappear,” he said.
Pia Marchegiani, executive deputy director of the Foundation for the Environment and Natural Resources (FARN), also emphasised that demotion of the government’s environment division from a ministry to a sub-secretariat will increase the difficulty associated with enacting environmental regulations, as regulators are required to discuss plans with mining, energy, and agricultural authorities.
“There is a tendency to roll back protections for key ecosystems that are already protected”, she added.
By Alejandra Padin-Dujon – alejandra@carbon-pulse.com
