Chile is crushing environmentalism in the name of economics

José Antonio Kast has completed his first 100 days as Chile's latest president. The new administration has so far pursued an economic agenda that echoes the playbook of other far-right governments across Latin America: shrink the state, loosen regulations and prioritise investment above all else.

President Kast inherited a country with a meaningful environmental record built over three decades. Chile's institutional framework, whilst imperfect, has steadily adapted to the challenges it faces.

The country is a party to both the Escazú and Paris agreements, and is leading negotiations for global treaties on plastics and the high seas. Domestically, the launch of the Biodiversity and Protected Areas Service (SBAP) in 2023 consolidated the protection of the country's ecosystems. Taken together, these actions represent the progressive spirit of the country.

That legacy is now under threat.

In the brief time since Kast's inauguration on 11 March, his administration has taken at least three alarming actions that risk dismantling that which took decades to build – each dressed up as economic recovery or administrative efficiency.

Environmental decrees have been trashed, and new protected areas have been delayed. Environmental advocates including myself have been shocked at the pace of change.

Setbacks in environmental regulation

On its second day in office, the new government withdrew 43 supreme decrees approved by Kast's predecessor, Gabriel Boric. These would have introduced a host of new environmental protections including pollutant emission standards, the designation of new protected areas, and other instruments related to Chile's governance of climate change.

As winter sets in, the air quality in Chilean cities has worsened, making the case for minimum standards – a feature of one of the withdrawn decrees – more pressing.

The Ministry of the Environment has said halting these decrees is part of a "broader operational review" and has committed to resubmit them. But only after they have been "corrected". This framing obscures an important reality: these decrees were not drafted in isolation by the previous government. They were the product of public participation processes involving communities, civil society organisations and businesses. Treating them as administrative drafts to be quietly revised ignores the democratic processes behind them.

Months later, only six have been reintroduced. The status of the remaining 30 remains unclear.

Setbacks in environmental governance

Chile's General Environmental Framework Act has been in force for 32 years. Over time, it has been strengthened to expand the state's powers in both environmental assessment and enforcement. Environmental governance has been embedded into national decision-making.

While previous governments have attempted to reform this legislation, they sought to achieve consensus on contentious issues such as investment permitting and project assessment.

Kast has chosen a different approach. Rather than seeking consensus, sweeping environmental reforms were rolled into a broader "omnibus" bill – the National Reconstruction Plan – alongside tax and labour measures. The bill has been fast-tracked through congress, where the government commands a majority.

The bundling of these issues makes scrutiny harder and democratic debate easier to bypass.

On environmental matters, the reforms are explicitly regressive. They would subordinate public protection to business investment in ways that contradict the foundational principles of the General Environmental Framework.

Environmental Qualification Resolutions (RCAs)

In Chile, this document of conditions, requirements or measures is issued to a project upon completion of its environmental impact assessment

Specifically, the plan proposes a state insurance scheme that would use public funds to compensate companies whose Environmental Qualification Resolutions are overturned by courts – in effect, socialising the cost of environmental violations.

It also seeks to abolish administrative annulment, a process by which communities can challenge development, and to shrink the window of time during which appeals can be made. The effect of these changes is that environmental governance would be easier to override.

Setbacks in biodiversity protection

Chile's biodiversity is exceptional. It boasts diverse geography spanning the world's driest desert, island ecosystems, Mediterranean valleys and Patagonian mountain ranges.

After more than 10 years of debate, proposals to protect this diverse ecosystem were finally introduced with the creation of the SBAP, which has merged multiple areas of nature protection management into one body. Chile currently has more than 160 official protected areas, representing approximately 37% of its land and marine area. On paper, the SBAP has extensive powers for the management of biodiversity in the country.

The Kast government is supposed to continue this work, introducing the legal frameworks and identifying the sites to be protected. Instead, two government-backed bills (the National Reconstruction Plan and a bill to change the SBAP) are now seeking to do the opposite: stalling the SBAP's implementation by delaying its regulations and the identification of priority sites.

The SBAP is essential for determining where investment projects can or cannot be established in the country, protecting precious, biodiverse areas from development. Chile cannot afford to continue delaying its implementation.

Chile's environmental gains have been hard won over many decades. Their future now hangs on what the Kast administration decides to do next.

This article is also published on Dialogue Earth. illuminem Voices is a democratic space presenting the opinions of leading Sustainability Thought Leaders, their views do not necessarily represent those of illuminem.

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